LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

©^tp^ttnjnjnafti Is 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 



AN ESSAY 



PRESENT DAY THEOLOGY, 



BY 



FRANK WAKELEY GUNSAULUS. 



' That each who seems a separate whole, 
Should move his rounds, and fusing all 
The skirts of self again, should fall 
Remerging in the general soul, 

' Is faith as vague as all unsweet. 
Eternal form shall still divide 
The eternal soul from all beside. 

And I shall know him when toe meet.'' 

-Tennyson. 




CHILLICOTIITC, O. : 

GOULD & KELLO 
1S79. 



T 












COPYRIGHTED. 

FRANK WAKELEY GUNSAULUS. 
1879. 



TO 
MY MOTHER, 

THE LOGIC OE WHOSE LIFE 

HAS BEEN 

AN ENNOBLING ILLUSTRATION 

OF A TliUE 

SYSTEM OP THEOLOGY. 

F. W. G. 



(iii) 



PREFACE. 



This small volume had its origin in the 
religious experience of the author. Its 
character is, in some sense, that of his the- 
ological life. Its logic, if it have such a 
good thing, has come from the heart he- 
fore it found expression from the head. 
It is offered as a faithful record, from 
an intellectual point of view, of the au- 
thor's relation to some questions in the- 
ology. It claims a right to existence, 
first, like "From Traditional to Rational 
Faith," because it has its basis in a relig- 
ious experience; secondly, like "Bluff- 
ton," because he who underwent such 
changes of opinion, believes he has made 
desirable progress. 

The author, however, lays no claim to 
such " heroism " as seems the labored char- 
acteristic of the one, and is certain, that 

(v) 



Vi PREFACE. 

he has not such absurd faith in himself 
as distinguishes the principal character 
in the other. 

One religious experience, as honestly 
noted, is as valuable as another. And if 
it may be said that the fact, as here re- 
corded, of one's leaving a creed, because 
under its influence, his religious life seem- 
ed dying, has no significance, the author 
has to reply, that granting this — which 
would be a most unwarrantable conces- 
sion — the epics of liberalism can be no 
more acceptable. 

The author has no reason for disguis- 
ing the fact that, while before a small and 
cultivated congregation, the matter of the 
volume has been given in the form of lec- 
tures, it would not have been put in this 
form had not those who have left ortho- 
doxy for liberalism been so anxious about 
giving the world "the reasons" for such 
steps. He is also free to say that he pre- 
fers the style of treating the subject, 
which he has adopted, because a statement 
of reasons is better made by argument 
and induction than by cataloguing dates, 
the names of towns, and detailing the cor- 



PREFACE. vii 

©nation of heroes. The question on 
which this book, as well as those from the 
liberal schools, is engaged, is serious, com- 
prehensive, and to be treated with phi- 
losophic candor. 

The author is profoundly convinced 
that as once William Ellery Chanuing 
preached on "The Great Purpose of 
Christianity," and wrote eloquent words 
to state " The .Moral Argument against 
Galvanism," so now the Great Purpose of 
Christianity is to be declared, and that in 
the Moral Argument against Unitarian- 
ism. Unless we desire a great Brook 
Farm Community we must avoid the 
reduction of God's universal politics to 
the constitution of that West Roxbury 
experiment, as given by Mr. Froth ing- 
ham. Far more, if we desire not the bind- 
ing of every human soul with shackles 
so strong that the warm light of the 
Sun of Righteousness shall not melt them, 
if we wish not the crushing of every no- 
ble purpose that has moved the hearts of 
men to be so complete that He, who said 
to Lazarus, " Come Forth ! " shall not 
reach into the silence of its death, let the 



Viii PREFACE. 

science of theology re-assert her claims 
with sound reason ; and w 7 ith a re-enthron- 
ed Christ, the gates of history shall ask, 
and the Church of God shall answer : 
" Who is this King of Glory? The Lord 
of Hosts, he is the King of Glory." 

At one time, the author was in helief, 
a faithful Unitarian — though for lack 
of opportunity never a member of this 
church — at a later time, through faith- 
fulness to the spirit of this theology, as he 
thinks, and without the helps of congen- 
ial association, he found himself advo- 
cating, as best he could, to friends who re- 
member his zeal, a higher and purer form 
of this philosophy ; which form he has 
since found was that known in 1842 as 
Transcendentalism. Sooner than seemed 
desirable these notions took a liner form, 
and as he thought faithfulness to the 
marrow of Unitarian theology led him 
into Transcendentalism, so he thinks 
faithfulness to Transcendentalism made 
him a Pantheist. Instead, therefore, of 
going from what Mr. Griffin would call 
the " Traditional Faith " — because he flew 
in horror from Pantheism — he went from 



PREFACE. i x 

what he would call -the "Rational" faith ; 
and they have each arrived, in some degree 
at least, at the point whence the other 
started. Instead then, of an epic on one 
who has left " these meshes of orthodox} 7 ," 
for the "clear stream of liberalism," the 
author of this small volume offers it as a 
sincere account of the steps of that 
weary journey from Liberalism to Ortho- 
doxy. 

To avoid making a large book, he has 
taken advantage of abundant citation 
and large reference. Those who do not 
care for the references would not care for 
the publication of a large quotation. He 
has no fear that those who read the vol- 
ume will regret the fullness of his notes. 

And, with its incompleteness, jf any one 
unsatisfied with half- views, and conscious 
that the inevitable tendency of a human 
Christianity is to the adoration of Pan, 
shall find his way out into " the faith once 
delivered to the saints," if any seeking 
soul shall find the remotest gleam of light 
for the hours of darkness and doubt, if any 
one shall be emboldened to a more cour- 
ageous and devoted service to the truth, 



X PREFACE. 

if, in any way, the air about may be made 
clearer and purer by these pages, the au- 
thor rejoices in their existence. 

It is, perhaps, an encroachment upon 
such solitude as is often sought by gentle- 
men of such fine taste and accurate schol- 
arship, to mention the obligations to 
the Hon. James E. Wright and A. W. 
Lincoln, Esq., under which the author 
comes to his readers, but he feels that he 
owes to his sense of gratitude, this privi- 
lege. 



CONTENTS 



TAOE. 

INTRODUCTION.— The Character ;of tiie Argu- 
ment, 1 

PAET I. 

THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST — PROVIDENCE. 
CHAPTER I.— The Dtvinity of Jesus Christ, . 45 
CHAPTER II.— The Divinity of Jesus Christ, . 71 

CHAPTER III.— Providence, HI 

PAET II. 

THE ATONEMENT. 
CHAPTER I.— A General Statement, . . .149 

CHAPTER II.— The Existences Interested in the 

Atonement— God, 165 

CHAPTER III.— The Existences Influenced in 

the Atonement— God, . . . . . . . ' 182 

CHAPTER IV.— other Existences Influenced and 

Interested, 199 

CHAPTER V— The Views of Dn. James Martineau, 212 
CHAPTER VI.— Trinitarian Idealism— The Con- 
sequences of these Ideas of sin, ... 231 

PAET III. 

THE TESTIMONY OF POETRY — CHRISTIAN THEISM. 

CHAPTER I. — Wordsworth — Tin: Christian 

Theist. 260 

CHAPTER II.— Is Christian Pantheism the Creed 
of the Future? 295 

CHAPTER III.— Is Christian Pantheism the Creed 
of the Future? 329 

CHAPTER IV.— Conclusion. ..... 364 

(xi) 



INTRODUCTION. 

THE CHARACTER OF THE ARGUMENT. 



" Criticism, guided by a true philosophy, is the key to revela- 
tion.^— Frederic H. Hedge. 

"JVo difficulty emerges in theology which had not previously 
emerged in philosophy. , '>— Sill WILLIAM HAMILTON. 

" Give me a boy in philosophy, and I care not who has him in 
theology.' 1 ''— Nathaniel Taylor. 

" The cure for a bad theology is mother-wit.'''' — R. TV. Em- 
ERSOH. 

" The dialectic, or method of the mind, constitutes the basis of 
all culture. . . . The knowledge of the mind is the be- 
ginning of all knowledje : without this a theology is baseless, 
the knowledge of God is impossible.'''' — A. BRONSON Alcott. 

"i have long thought that without an eternal Logos you must 
have an eternal Kosmos ; and I therefore suspect that a mono- 
personal Theism {the Theism, of the Unitarian, the Deist, the Mo- 
hammedan) is impotent against the Pantheist. So that, since the 
controversy has passed from its old Atheistic phases, I doubt 
if either Deist, Socinian, or Mohammedan will be able to cope 
with the Pantheist. In short, I doubt if any but a Trinitarian 
can do so adequately.'''' — JOHN" DUNCAN. 



INTRODUCTION. 



" Like those who repair old clothes, the heretics 
are giving an air of novelty to what is most worn 
out in Paganism." — St. Hippolyte. 

The human spirit has expressed its idea- 
life in various forms. The most scientific 
of these, with respect to the facts of re- 
ligion, is the confession of faith, or what 
we term the creed. These forms have de- 
pendencies, each upon each, also life, 
death, and resurrection ; and there is no 
more interesting study than that of find- 
ing the relative strength of forces within 
and forces without influencing the char- 
acter of all systems of belief. Even 
if we are not allowed to regard them 
as spheres of our spiritual activity, creeds 
are useful as definitive, preservative, aud 
aggressive of the underlying life. And 

(l) 



2 INTRODUCTION. 

yet every one who has thought at all on 
the subject has felt the possibly evanes- 
cent character of all creeds, as it is plain 
that the dearest have been broken. 

"One after one they left us — 
The sweet birds out of our breasts 
"Went flying away in the morning. 
Will they come again to our nests?" 

Confessedly not because of our prof- 
fered hospitality, which, to most of us, 
does not appear to be the aim of our 
being, the hint of Mr. Emerson to the 
contrary notwithstanding. 1 

The experience of fi'iding one's creed 
broken, as knowledge grows "from more 
to more," as the circle of one's living 
widens, is a common one. It is only one 
side of the experience of feeling one's bark 
on different waves; for also as spiritual life 
contracts there is often a wreck of its 
precious burden because of the pressure 
of purely outside forces. The secret of 
success here evidently is, to think through 
one into a larger, if any change be desir- 
able. Creeds are to the soul what the 

1 Works. Vol. I., p. 158. 



INTRODUCTION. 3 

water is to the boatman, when oat on the 
Atlantic, farewell to the Hudson and the 
Bay; and growth means the getting out 
at the mouth of the Hudson, and out of 
the Bay into the sea. 

It is not numerical Unitarianism which 
has most changed, and w r hose transform- 
ations invite attention. A more funda- 
mental fact appears. For the metamor- 
phoses of the spirit it embodies are most 
illustrative of profound truth to the schol- 
ar and the theologian. Whether the 
spirit of Unitarianism in Emerson, as it 
embodied itself later in Transcendent- 
alism, and to-day echoes the music of the 
most ideal Pantheism, has gone into liner 
robes or not, this is not the place to say. 
But that this philosophy has been pro- 
fessed by those who, being Pantheists 
now, were once Unitarians, and after- 
wards Transcendental ists, is as plain as 
any fact in history. There are facts of 
biography which by their prominence de- 
mand an explanation in philosophy, and 
it is to the study of these facts that this 
essay asks attention ; believing that the 
thought and the life of men who w think" 



4 INTRODUCTION. 

and "live" so intensely, and with whom 
these words are so synonymous, ought to 
be, in some degree at least, mutually ex^ 
pla native. 

But Unitarianism objects to such a 
word as " creed," and seeks in finely writ- 
ten tracts to demolish these existences. 
It is a battle, as is plain, that Unitarian- 
ism has been fighting in, and, for a lone 
while, alone; and the prospects are that 
as long as the Unitarian Publishing As- 
sociation continues to issue tracts on 
"What do Unitarians Believe" (credo)? 
and to cry loudly for the orthodox dog- 

1 Is it not a little incongruous, that, in the same 
bundle with this published traet by Samuel J. May, 
as sent out to do work for the cause, by the Ameri- 
can Unitarian Association, William E. Channing 
should appear, speaking in pointed objection to 
"creeds," saying many such sentences as these: 
"I can but look on human creeds with feelings ap- 
proaching contempt." (P. 5.) "They impair self- 
respect." (P. 8.) " Skeletons, fragments, freezing 
abstractions." (P. 5.) "If they who wear the 
chains of creeds once knew the happiness of breath- 
ing the air of freedom, and of moving with an un- 
incumbered spirit, no wealth or power in the world's 
gift would bribe them to part with their spiritual 
liberty." (P. 8 of Remarks on Creeds, etc., A. U. A.) ? 



INTRODUCTION. 5 

mas, and all else in fact but the Unitarian, 
yea even — since lately Unitarianism has 
become so Unit- avian that each man is 
oracle 1 — all else but the keenest writer's 
view of those dogmas, to die; in fact, so 
long as this church continues to demon- 
strate, by this or any other means, that 
what is known among them as "liberal- 
ism" is the most intolerant narrowness, 

1 "The creed of Unitarians must be studied as one 
would take soundings at sea. The measurement in one 
place is no guaranty of the depth in another. "What 
was believed twenty years ago may not be indorsed 
by the leaders of to-day. One writer of their fold 
says: 'Unitarianism is loose, vague, general, inde- 
terminate in its elements and formularies.' (Ellis' 
Half Century of Unitarianism, p. 34.) "When 
George Putnam installed Mr. Fosdick over the 
Hollis Street Church, he said, with commendable 
candor: ' There is no other Christian body of which 
it is so impossible to tell where it begins and where 
it ends. We have no recognized principles by which 
any man who chooses to be a Christian disciple, and 
desires to be numbered with us, whatever he believes 
or denies, can be excluded.' " (Hurst's History of 
Nationalism, p. 544.) 

" I prefer to speak in the first person, on account 
of diversities of opinion existing in our Unitarian 
fellowship, pledged, as it is, to a broad-thoughted 
large-hearted liberality." (Eev. Wm. C. Tenney's 
Tract, "Teh Points of Difference," p. 1.) 



6 INTRODUCTION. 

the battle will be waxing fiercer. Creed 
or no creed, it is what one believes (credo) 
that gives him ballast; and it is what 
Unitarianism has clung to, as credible 
dogma, that gives her such authority in 
advising others to suicide. No man 
thinks without a creed. He must some- 
how know this from that; and the sum- 
total of this knowledge with its philos- 
ophy will formulate itself. Written creeds 
are few as systems of philosophy are few 
in comparison with the population of the 
globe. Unitarianism has a creed and a 
history, and, written or unwritten, they 
must illustrate each other. 

Unitarian history has not been written, 
though every library has books on the 
subject. Sketches, volumes, essays, and 
accounts of all sorts are before us, which 
have taken dates and names, and with 
true statistical genius have left us with- 
out any account of the spiritual record (of 
which so much is made) of the church of 
Channing and Parker. 1 Some data one 

1 Eveiy orthodox reader of Unitarian literature 
will admire the candor and critical acumen of Dr. 
Bellows, when, from a New York platform, he de- 



INTRODUCTION. 7 

ought to take into consideration, in any 
view of this system, and especially in such 
a view as we attempt, which identities its 
spirit with that of one of the most subtle, 
fast -increasing', and erroneous theories of 
life and being. We expect to write of 
some of the phases of Unitarianism in 
its inside life, as expressed from within 
and without, in its affiliations with 
systems antagonistic to the Bible," the 
faith once delivered to the saints," and to 
right reason ; avoiding, as little as possible, 
the consideration of this theology as 

clares the identity of the spirit which animated these 
two men, as against the saintly sentimentality of the 
one side, and the licentious intellectualism of the 
other. " Let me add, too, that to put Dr. Channing 
and Theodore Parker, differ as they did in theology, 
into opposite categories, is a mistake in every way. 
In his lifetime, Dr. Channing was the friend of Theo- 
dore Parker, and was far less afraid of his opinions 
and influence than most conservative Unitarians 
were. I do not doubt that, if both of them were 
alive to-day, they would not only scout any plan of 
distrust and separation between the two schools in 
the Unitarian body, but would confess that the more 
radical element in our denomination was as vitally 
necessary to its usefulness and success as the more 
conservative one." (Christian Examiner, November, 
1806, p. 303.) 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

through various channels, and under va- 
rious names, it meets the student of the 
past, 1 using it only as it illustrates the 
present, and agreeing that the issue is 
even now clearly defined, and that the 
"genius of liberal Christianity " desires 
supremacy at the present — willing to take 
this system for all that it signifies in pos- 
itive teaching and tendency, as these are 

JCf.— 

Farrar, Critical History of Free Thought, p. 391. 
Geo. E. Ellis, D.D., Half Century of the Uni- 
tarian Controversy. 
Christian Examiner (to which we have referred 
only as the numbers for 1865, 1866, 1867 hap- 
pened to be in our hands, and as these must be 
taken as specimens). 
Christian Eegister. 
Unitarian Eeview. 

Christian Inquirer, and other Unitarian peri- 
odicals. 
For list of Unitarian publications, which the his- 
torian will consult, see Hurst's History of Eational- 
ism, Appendix, p. 606. 
Add to these — 

Belsham, Eeview of Mr. Wilberforce's Enquiry. 
Magee, Appendix to "The Atonement." 
Eeview of the above, and 

Present Day Unitarianism (the publication of 
•which see in Association Catalogue). 



INTRODUCTION. 9 

expressed in its present day missionary 
tracts, its translations of Scripture and 
of approved foreign theology, its works 
in examination of orthodoxy, its com- 
mentaries, its copious literature, its pres- 
ent influence, and its prospects — with 
whatever light the past shall give us in 
interpretation of these, we shall attempt 
a chronicle of its relation to other intel- 
lectual movements, which, while it will 
lack the elates of Mr. Ellis' "remarkable 
book," and the severity of Preistly's 
" History," may be more candid than 
either, and so, not less near the truth. 

[Not more complete is the history of 
Transcendentalism. Scarcely touched 
until Mr. Frothingham's delightful book 
was printed, it suddenly became a theme, 
and from the highest grounds one was al- 
lowed the delicacy of tasting the fruit of 
the Brook Farm, the pleasures of beholcl- 
iug some of the faces of that company, 
and the joy of hearing from those of close 
acquaintance and deep friendship — the 
very tones, amusing and interesting, of 
their voices, as they spoke to the cows, 
and broke the primeval silence with high 



10 INTRODUCTION. 

philosophy, or, like the ignorant Haw- 
thorne, asked Mr. George Ripley laugh- 
able questions. Hawthorne himself had 
given us a few notes, it is true, and pre- 
cious they were to all of us; while Dr. 
Hedge 1 and others, 2 with one, 3 who has 
since become somewhat distasteful to 
some of this 

" Small transfigured band 
Which the world can not tame," 

gave us short accounts of days spent 
pleasantly, and briefly written impres- 
sions of the West Roxbury home. 

Nathaniel Hawthorne, by the very fact 
of his constitution, could have written in 
no other strain than that in whicli he be- 
gins his second volume of American 
Notes. He was a Transcendentalist by 
nature. He found the " letter " of Trans- 
cendentalism at Brook Farm, and his 

1 Christian Examine]', January, 1867, "The Desti- 
nies of Ecclesiastical Religion/' p. 12 et seq. 

2 Notably Dr. Samuel Osgood, International Re- 
view, Vol. 3, No. 6. 

3 Questions of the Soul, 5th ed., 1861 ; Isaac T. 
Becker. Christian Examiner, January 1865. 



INTRODUCTION. \\ 

recollections of days lived with that band 
of men, and in that literalness, against 
which his nimble spirit chafed, are an- 
other testimony to the fact that of this 
new religion as of the old, this one thing 
is true, " the litter killeth, the spirit giv- 
eth life." There is far more of the salt 
which hath not" lost its savor" in Haw- 
thorne, who, in dismal gloom, gave to 
Mr. Fields that manuscript, than in the 
Hawthorne, who, on the Brook Farm, 
" went out to the barn before breakfast 
and began to chop hay for the cattle, and 
who labored with such righteous vehe- 
mence," as Mr. R ; ph3y said, -'that, in the 
space of ten minutes, he broke the ma- 
chine;" who had to hear Mr. Ripley ex- 
plain, when he had put a four-pronged in- 
strument into his hands, that he had given 
him "a fork;" 1 and who seems to have 
realized the height of this philosophy in 
such severe literalism as he found it here, 
when he wrote April 16, " I have milked a 
cow!" Certainly, Hawthorne was right 
when he wrote of his stay at Brook Farm, 

1 American Note Hooks. 



12 INTRODUCTION. 

" The real me was never an associate of 
the community. There had been a spec- 
tral appearance there, sounding the horn 
at day-break, and milking the cows, and 
hoeing the potatoes, and raking ha} 7 , toil- 
ing in the sun, and doing me the honor 
to assume my name; but the spectre was 
not myself." 1 

Mr. Frothingham has left much of the 
history of Transcendentalism unwritten. 
He has not told us much about it as a 
system. And one can know from this 
book he has written but little about the 
principles which came into its constitution, 
as it was in imperio at West Roxbury and 
in Boston. Probably he thought, as some 
do, that it is entirely too nebulous a thing 
to define ; or, with others, that for all 
speculative purposes, as well as to prac- 
tical ends, the present knowledge is suffi- 
cient. He writes five very interesting 
chapters about it elsewhere, and disap- 
points all the hopes of the student of 
philosophy, as when treating its appear- 
ance in this country, he entertains the 

1 American Note Books. 



INTRODUCTION. 13 

curious about its professors, rather than 
satisfies the scholar of its pedigree and 
constitution. Every writer on this sub- 
ject may adopt his words with some un- 
derstanding that the lines are clear and 
that there is no dispute : 

"Ancient idealism, whether Eastern or 
Western, may be left undisturbed. Pla- 
tonism and E~eo-Platonism may be ex- 
cused from further torture on the witness- 
stand. The speculations of the mystics, 
Romanist or Protestant, need not be re- 
examined. The idealism of Gale, More, 
Pordage, of Cudworth, and the later 
Berkeley, in England, do not immediately 
concern us. We need not even submit 
John Locke to fresh cross-examination, 
or describe the effect of his writings on 
the thinkers who came after him." 1 So 
that we are left just here. E~o ; Mr. 
Erothingham adds what is surprisingly 
loose philosophy : 

" The Transcendental Philosophy, so- 
called, had a distinct origin in Immanuel 
Kant, whose ' Critique of Pure Reason ' 

1 Transcendentalism in New England, p. 1. 



14 INTRODUCTION. 

was published in 1781, and opened a new 
epoch in metaphysical thought ;' ?1 and 
which becomes more surprising as a state- 
ment in philosophical history, as Mr. 
Frothingham proceeds to explain it; and 
as, in after pages, he gets very much 
nearer the truth. 

Leaving out the definitions of Parker, 
Mr. Emerson would have us understand 
what Transcendentalism is, in so far as a 
single lecture and much writing on the sub- 
ject can explain it. We look at things, 
according to his description, and after we 
have discovered " that we exist/' which 
discovery " is called the fall of man," we 
inspect our instruments : 

" We have learned that we do not see 
directly, but mediately, and that we have 
no means of correcting these colored and 
distorting lenses which we are, or of 
computing the amount of their errors. 
Perhaps these subject lenses have a crea- 
tive power; perhaps there are no objects. 
Once we lived in what wo saw; now, the 
rapaciousness of this new power, which 

1 Transcendentalism in ISTew England, p. 1. 



INTRODUCTION. 15 

threatens to absorb all things, engages us. 
Nature, art, persons, letters, religions — 
objects, successively tumble in, and God 
is but one of its ideas. Nature and liter- 
ature are subjective -phenomena; every 
evil and every good thing is a shadow 
which we cast." 

He adds to this: "General ideas are 
essences. They are our gods ; they round 
and ennoble the most partial and sordid 
way of living. Our proclivity to details 
can not quite degrade our life, and divest 
it of poetry. The day-laborer is reckoned 
as standing at the foot of the social scale, 
yet he is saturated with the laws of the 
world. 1 ... A noble doubt perpetu- 
ally suggests itself, whether this end be 
not the Final Cause of the Universe; and 
whether nature outwardly exists. . . . 
Whether nature enjoy a substantial exis- 
tence without, or is only in the apocalypse 
of the mind, it is alike useful and alike 
venerable to me. Be it what it may, it is 
ideal to me, so long as I can not try the 
accuracy of my senses. . . .In my 

1 Osgood's Eel. Works, Vol. 1, Essay on "Experi- 
ence," also " Nature," pp. 27, 452. 



16 INTRODUCTION. 

utter impotence to test the authenticity of 
the report of my senses, to know whether 
the impressions they make on me corre- 
spond with outlying objects, what differ- 
ence does it make, whether Orion is up 
there in heaven, or some god paints the 
image in the firmament of the soul?" 1 

Now, if Mr. Froth ingham is to be be- 
lieved, that Mr. Emerson is u the finest 
interpreter of the Transcendental move- 
ment," 2 and if there is force in these and 
a hundred other passages like them, we 
must believe that Transcendentalism had 
antiquity behind the " Critique of Pure 
Reason ;" indeed, that the philosophy is 
much older than its name, and that what- 
ever Mr. Frothingham may think of the 
witnesses whose testimony he excuses, 
Keo-Platonism, Mysticism, the sorts of 
Idealism mentioned, and the protests to 
John Locke's physical Metaphysics — they 
are inseparably bound up with the ideas of 
the chief of New England Transcendent- 
alism. We do believe Mr. Erothingham, 

1 Osgood's ed. Works, Vol. 1, Essay on " Nominal- 
ist and liealist," p. 528; cf. also p. 31. 

2 Transcendentalism in New England, p. 142. 



IN TROD UCTION. 1 7 

here, and we believe him so truly that 
we think Mr. Emerson has said its spirit 
forcefully and definitely : 

" What is popularly called Transcen- 
dentalism among us, is Idealism; Idealism 
as it appears in 1842. " l 

" This way of thinking, falling on Ro- 
man times, made Stoic philosophers ; fall- 
ing on despotic times, made patriot Catos 
and Brutuses; falling on superstitions 
times, made prophets and apostles ; on 
popish times, made protestants and as- 
cetic monks, preachers of Faith against 
the preachers of Works; on prelatical 
times, made Puritans and Quakers; and 
falling on Unitarian and commercial times, 
makes the peculiar shades of Idealism 
which we know." 2 

Mr. Frothingham might be consulted in 
various places, 3 where he unintentionally 
breaks faith with this first statement. It 
is the truth, however, and not the incon- 
sistencies of this writer which we seek. 

1 Works, Vol. 1, p. 180. 

2 Ibid., Vol. 1, p. 184. 

3 Transcendentalism in New England, pp. 108, 
104, 115. 

9! 



18 INTRODUCTION. 

It is well known that to quote the Ideal- 
ism of Transcendentalism would be to 
quote the literature of Transcendentalism 
entire ; and that, despite the statement of 
Mr. Frothingham, perhaps no liner ex- 
pression of these principles exists than is 
contained in the four volumes of the 
"Dial." 

We have neither disposition nor need 
to discuss philosophical Idealism -} and 
hope, by liberal quotation, to show, with- 
out any analysis or elaboration of ours, 
"the genius of its appearance in 1842." 
All we say is this, that while Mr. Froth- 

1 Consult especially, besides the works on the sub- 
ject: 

Mr. Lowell's Essays on 

,^ rlyle ' • ) In .,My Study 

Thoreau, I , TT . i ,, 

^ ' x I Windows." 

Emerson, the Lecturer, ) 

Princeton Essays, ed. of 1846, p. 608, "Trans- 
cendentalism." 

Prof. Prentice's Articles on Emerson, in Method- 
ist Quarterly, for 1875. 

North American Review, July, 1839, "Kant and 
his Philosophy." 

Riblical Repertory, January, 1845, "The Teu. 
tonic Metaphysics, or Modern Transcendent- 
alism," by Calvin E. Stowe. 



INTRODUCTION. 19 

ifigham has said that he " was once a 
pure Transcendentalist" — which his pres- 
ent day readers will not doubt — and, as if 
to hint his special fitness for the task of 
writing the history, by this fact, he adds 
that his " ardor may have cooled," he has 
touched upon a very interesting question, 
— and only touched upon it — a question 
which, since the missionary efforts of 
Unitarianism are as earnest as ever, while 
the " Higher Pantheism " counts its de- 
votees among peasants and kings, dream- 
ers, magicians, and philosophers, is of 
supreme importance to any soul who will 
be hospitable to great spiritual move- 
ments : — the question, how is Idealism re- 
late i on the one side to the Unitarian theol- 
ogy, and on the other to Pantheism. Dog- 
mat" sm does not approach it as food for 
her speculative organs. Criticism does 
not catch at straws, except as the flood's 
bosom carries them on by its significant 
currents. But history, for whose arbitra- 
ment the school of theology under con- 
sideration professes great respect, has 
written some opinions as it has given the 
lives of men to its readers; which opiu- 



20 INTRODUCTION. 

ions, because of the fundamental nature 
of the science of theology, have a phase 
rendering them important since thus in- 
vested with a doubly dogmatic character. 
Civilization bends its form to theology, to 
catch the inspiration of the coming time. 
The children of men are interested in 
every stroke of science, as she postulates 
her " thus far and no farther," or pats, in 
blazing characters, the highest utterance 
of saints as her noblest reach of vision. 
Every system of theology moreover is ac- 
countable to the human race ; and the 
judgment-day for systems has its date in 
the past, and in all the present, and the 
future ; and its test is the making of men 
after God's image, as well as dependence 
upon another mode of revelation. 

In such a presence we assert, that, if 
history has one lesson to teach about 
Pantheism, in its relations to Idealism, 
and through Idealism to Unitarian theol- 
ogy, it is, that certain principles which 
have been the life of the root, Unitarian- 
ism, have shot up through the soil' in 
healthy Transcendentalism, blooming and 
fruiting in Pantheism. 



INTRODUCTION. 21 

It is not our intention to deflect from 
this historical dogma in either direction. 
We are as certain of its foundation in 
fact, as of the reliability of history, "We 
select among the ranks, which crowd 
upon the serious investigator, some rep- 
resentative names. 

Of such theologians and philosophers 
of an early age, one may be said to be 
representative; 1 and though there was 
no Brook Farm to call the spirits of the 
dead and the living into a practical exhi- 
bition of their philosophy, and even if 
from Tatian to Spinoza, none of that 
band knew the other, early Christian lit- 
erature will not forget the life that ex- 
pressed itself in history, through Hippoly- 
tus, Amalrich of Beua, David of Dianto, 
Eckhart, and Silesius, and, in prophetic or 
dying tones, through a multitude of other 
voices, — while history will recognize as 
the most acute and strong-minded of this 

1 Cf. Ueberweg's History of Philosophy, Vol. 1, p. 
359 et seq. 
Shedd, History of Christian Doctrine, Vol. 1, 

pp. 177, 226; Vol. 2, p. 377, 
With Church History Accounts of Erigena. 



22 INTRODUCTION. 

brilliant coterie, the follower of Dionysius 
the Areopagite, Johannes Scotus. 

He began with Neo-Platonism in its 
application to the theology of his day. 
He applied it to the idea of creation, and 
to the belief and idea of God. With as 
much genius as shone in any single face of 
that age, and with more pertinacity than 
genius, lie' used this philosophy in his theo- 
logical investigations, to the total sub- 
version of any clearly defined outline of 
Christian dogma. He was even more 
earnest in the defense of the idea that 
Neo-Platonic conceptions were at the 
base of primitive Christianity, than those 
who consciously and unconsciously follow 
him in our day. He was an Idealist. 

He openly rejected the authority of 
anything but that of these principles, 
and with splendid learning, affirmed that 
true philosophy and true religion were 
identical. Nothing but God truly existed 
to him. The Son was the unfolding of 
his wisdom ; x the Holy Ghost the unfold- 

1- This, of coarse, is no Trimtarianism, and, like all 
other Sabellianism, is possible only on the soil of 
Idealism. Praxeas, Noetus, Beryl, and the famous 



INTRODUCTION. 23 

ing of his life; " the uncreated bat creat- 
ing nature was the source of all created 
things." Creation was the modification of 
God consequent on his proceeding 
through the " Primordiales Causas " 
(which w^ere contained in the Divine Wis- 
dom, the Son), into invisible and visible 
creature life. God was the basis-substance 
of ail finite things. Man's knowledge was 
theophany ; since our life is God's life in 
us, and, as a part of this being, all things 
have a relation to God. His ideas of the 
Eucharist were in perfect harmony with 
those of Mr. Emerson's famous sermon. 1 

Presbj'ter of Ptolemais, by a free use of the same 
principles, are Unitarian figures in theological his- 
tory, although they " did not deny the Trinity alto- 
gether, and in flat terms, like the ancient Theodo- 
tian and the modern Socinian." (Shedd, History of 
Christian Doctrine, Vol. 2, p. 435 et seq. ; also Wi- 
ner's Confessions of Christendom.) Dr. Shedd is 
not prone, we think, to accept more than one Trinity; 
and certainly the a Trinity, which is kindly touched 
as the antidote to no Trinity, was not the ever-blessed 
Trinity, nor have any Nicaeno-Constantinopolitan 
councils changed the nature of things so thoroughly 
as to absolve Sabellianism from the direct charge of 
Socinianism. (Cf. Shedd, Vol. 1, p. 255.) 
1 Transcendentalism in New England, p. 363. 



24 INTRODUCTION. 

His idea of man would find expression 
in Mr. Emerson's 

" I am owner of the sphere, 

Of the seven stars and the solar year, 

Of Caesar's hand and Plato's brain, 

Of Lord Christ's heart, and Shakespeare's strain," 1 

since be needs no grace, and openness 
to the proceeding God is all. The the- 
ophanies of the books of Genesis and 
Exodus are not richer than those of this 
day, since all ideas are God-emanations, 
and all thoughts signalize the entrance 
of the Eternal into man. His philosophy 
climaxes in its desire to enrobe man and 
the world with Deity, and to identify the 
consciousness of the former with the self- 
consciousness of God, as the latter is 
coeval with him. He was a Pantheist. 

A fact which is both a force and a fig- 
ure in English literature, is Samuel Tay- 
lor Coleridge. And this same personage 
is a fact and figure in theological history; 
while he is, perhaps, from the very fact 
that upon its face the truth does not ap- 
pear, as representative a spirit as any of 

1 Prologue to Essay on History, Vol. 1, p. 218. 



INTRODUCTION. 25 

this growth from Unitarian ism through 
Transcendentalism to Pantheism. 

" The inspired charity boy, to whom 
the casual passer through the cloisters lis- 
tened entranced with admiration, as he 
unfolded in deep and sweet intonations 
the mysteries of Iamblichus or Plotinus, 
or recited the Greek of Homer or Pin- 
dar," 1 has so impressed the theology of 
his own, and, through that, the Christian 
philosophy of all time, that any sketch 
of the life of Unitarianism, written from 
any point of view, much more any ac- 
count of Transcendentalism or Panthe- 
ism, without his name, would he mani- 
festly incomplete. Such history is not 
our work. But if, in the present task, 
due mention at least of this force and 
its operations were not made, the mistake 
would be far less excusable, since the opin- 
ions of Coleridge are spoken by prophets 
to-day from pulpits of all sorts, with well 
nigh as much eloquence as belonged to 
the seer of High-gate; these opinions 
were, and yet are the outcome of a par- 

1 Charles Lamb. 



26 INTRODUCTION. 

ticular philosophy ; and if one man of 
native clearness, depth, and learning, il- 
lustrates the idea of this essay in expla- 
nation, that man is the imaginative and 
philosophic dreamer who wrote " The 
Rime of the Ancient Mariner. 7 ' 

Not that Coleridge 1 was a Pantheist 
except by an analysis of his philosophy ; 
but that this rare spirit found himselt 
with one foot lifted, about to set it over 
the line, into a philosophy which was 
Pantheism by confession, that, seeing the 
Impersonal and the natural only before 
him, he rushed to the arms of the Personal 
and Spiritual, whence he drew salvation. 

He stands in the history of theological 
speculation and belief, as a theist pro- 
nounced in his faith, and intense in his 
conviction. His views of responsibility, 
which had crystallized only after his es- 
cape from Pantheism, are in happy con- 
trast to the philosophy he once loved ; 
and his ideas of creation, which suffered 
such a mighty revolution, stand in full 

1 Cf. Shairp, J. C, Essay on Coleridge, in " Studies 
in Poetry and Philosophy,'' which has an important 
bearing on this subject.' 



INTRODUCTION. 27 

antagonism to those of the school of 
whose number he was about to become 
such an ornament. Coleridge, in the 
Unitarian chapel at Bath, whence he had 
gone with Cottle, in Birmingham in Jan- 
uary, 1798, before the delighted llazlitt, 
who " had not been more delighted " had 
he "heard the music of the spheres/' 
" since Poetry and Philosophy had met 
together, Truth and Genius had embraced 
under the eye and sanction of religion ;" 
in Shrewsbury, declining the charge of a 
congregation, because, as he said, u active 
zeal for Unitarian Christianity, not indo- 
lence or indifference, has been the motive 
of my declining a local and solid settle- 
ment as a preacher of it;" 1 in Germany, 
in 1798, hearing eagerly and believingly 
the Idealists and Pantheists — this Cole- 
ridge is not the Coleridge of a later date, 
after his oscillations from Schelling to 
Kant, who, having lifted his foot to pass 
over to Pantheism, saw those spectres, 
and, having fled, sat down and wrote : 
"Spite of all the superior airs of the Na- 

1 Letter to Mr. Isaac Wood, January 19, 1798. 



28 INTRODUCTION. 

tar-Philosophie, I confess that, in the pe- 
rusal of Kant, I breathe the air of good 
sense and logical understanding, with the 
light of reason shining in and through 
it; while in the physics of Schelling I 
am amused with happy conjectures, and 
in his theology I am bewildered by posi- 
tions, which, in their first sense, are 
Transcendental (Uberfliegend), and in 
their literal sense, scandalous;" 1 nor is it 
the Coleridge of the fifth of August, 1833, 
who sent a verbal message to America's 
Transcedentalist, who, at one o'clock, 
" w T ith bright blue eyes and a fine, clear 
complexion, leaning on his cane," met 
Ralph Waldo Emerson — told him that 
Mr. Channing's " turning out a Unita- 
rian " was " an unspeakable misfortune," 
who, " on this," " burst into a declaration 
on the folly of Unitarianism — its high 
unreasonableness," and, while Emerson 
felt bound to tell him that he was a Uni- 
tarian born and bred, persisted in hurling 
Trinitarianism of all sorts at him ; who 
told our philosopher that he himself w r as 

1 Page 709, Appendix 3, Biographia Literaria, 
Shedd's ed. 



INTRODUCTION. 29 

once called " the rising star of Unitarian- 
ism," and punished him with his baptis- 
mal ode, beginning, 

" Born unto God in Christ." 

The first is Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the 
Unitarian, on his way from his first profes- 
sions, through a higher form of those first 
principles, Transcendentalism, to the high- 
est, Pantheism. The second is the same 
personage holding to enough of Theism to 
save him, at least in his own estimation, 
from Pantheism, and so, loving it dearly, 
believing in it intensely, preaching about 
it continually. 

Mr. Frothingham remarks that "the 
prophet of the new philosophy in England 
was Samuel Taylor Coleridge," 2 "who 
was a born Idealist," 3 and who, he informs 
us in another place, " was a pure Transcen- 
dentalist, of the Schelling school." 4 This 

1 Emerson, English Traits, "Works, Vol. 2, pp. 162, 
163, 164. 

2 Transcendentalism in New England, p. 76. 

3 Ibid., p. 80. 
* Ibid., p, 82. 



30 INTRODUCTION. 

Coleridge was Coleridge before he know- 
ingly came to Pantheism. 

We hear of Coleridge, the theologian, 
with his large and respectable following 
in his own country, and in ours, and read 
the lines of Aubrey de Yere, that we may 
see him when 

" Mighty voices from afar came to him ; 

Converse of trumpets held by cloudy forms, 
And speech of choral storms; 
Spirits of night and noontide bent to woo him. 
He stood the while, lonely and desolate, 
As Adam when he ruled a world, yet found no 
mate." 

This is Coleridge after he saw the grim 
Impersonal, and had thought to have es- 
caped from his sight, clinging still to the 
path of Idealism upon which he had ad- 
vanced for so many years, and. upon which 
then he retreated. 

It is because Coleridge had such an in- 
stinctive protest within him against Pan- 
theism, and further, because of a philoso- 
phy from which he never got so entirely 
free, that he was wholly out of clanger of 
the more Ideal (which is lately called the 
Higher) Pantheism, because he thus illus- 



INTRODUCTION. 31 

trates the proposition, that the soul of 
Uuitarianism is Idealism, and that Ideal- 
ism has its legitimate results in Pan- 
theism, that so much attention has here 
been given to his name 1 
lie who wrote 

" Here once the embattled farmers stood, 
And fired the shot heard round the world." 

needs no chronicle to Americans. Men 
like Ralph Waldo Emerson live in civil- 
izations not in figures. The true chron- 
ology of his life is to be found in the books 
of wisdom, in the pages of large and 
sinewy error he has written. His life 
and our literature are so related as that 
few dates will suffice. Eight generations 
of preachers were behind him. His father 
was pastor of the second Unitarian So- 
ciety in Boston. He was reared in Uni- 
tarian influences, and when a small boy 
was the Champion of Unitarian ideas 
among his school fellows. When he was 
graduated, Harvard was a Unitarian Col- 
lege. He studied theology at the feet of 

1 Cf. a long extract made by Mr. Froth ingh am, pp. 
82-87, valuable for the connection in which it is 
quoted. 



32 INTROD UCTION. ■ 

the highest-minded Unitarians. With 
great friendship among the Unitarians, 
he was " approbated to preach " in a Uni- 
tarian Church. He left the Church of 
his association and choice, but, as a study 
of his Letter 1 and sermon will show, with 
full faith in its principles. He asserted 
himself a Transcendentalist. He became 
a member of the Brook Farm Community. 
With any analysis of his works he must 
be pronounced an earnest Pantheist of the 
Ideal type. 

This is a simple statement of facts, 
which appears in another form in that in 
1832 he preached about Jesus as media- 
tor, " in that only sense in which possibly 
any being can mediate between God and 
man, that is as an instructor of man. 
He teaches us how to become like God," 2 
in 1836, he wrote: 

" Turgot said, < He that has never 
doubted the existence of matter may be 
assured he has no aptitude for metaphys- 
ical inquiries/ It fastens the attention 
upon immortal, necessary, uncreated na- 

1 Transcendentalism in New England, p. 234. 

2 Ibid., p. 378. 



1NTR0D UCTION. 33 

tnres, that is, upon Ideas; and in their 
presence, we feel that the outward circum- 
stance is a dream and a shade. Whilst 
we wait in this Olympus of gods, we think 
of nature as an appendix to the soul. 
We ascend into their region, and know 
that these are the thoughts of the Su- 
preme Being :" * and " The world proceeds 
from the same spirit as the body of man. 
It is a remoter and inferior incarnation 
of God a projection of God in the un- 
conscious," 2 and that, since 1841, the 
date of "The Method of Nature," he has 
ever been questioning with affirmative 
assent, as he thus has given deeper and 
finer expression to his vision, " are there 
not moments in the history of heaven 
when the human race was not counted by 
individuals, but was only the influenced, 
was God in distribution, God rushing in- 
to multiform benefit?" 3 

1 Essay on Nature, Vol. 1, p. 31. 

2 Ibid., p. 36. 

3 Vol.. 1, p. 114. 

The Essay of this distinguished writer, in a late 
number of the North American Keview, -"The Sov- 
ereignty of Ethics," in which he seems to assent to 
the personality of God, has no relation to these 



34 1NTR0D UCTION. 

But there is little need of going to the 
apostates of this communion for examples, 
and the heretics may be excused from 
further testimony. 

We shall meet no more interesting life 
fact in American theological history than 
one of the present-day forces in the Un- 
itarian Church; and we know of no one 
who better illustrates in life the theory 
of this essay than he, who, upon writing 
"Reason in Religion" was hailed as "the 
Unitiarian Chief," and who has lately 
given the world a much more masculine 
work—" The Ways of The Spirit." 

The antecedence of Frederic Henry 
Hedge is so well known as to require no 
reproduction of names here ; and what- 
ever of testimony to his theological life 
is given will be taken from journals and 
writers whose authority to speak on the 
subject can not be doubted, in view of 
often declared conviction or well known 

facts, except as it thus appears that his test of Pan- 
theism has been so sympathetic and thorough as to 
prove, at least to himself, its insufficiency, and that 
to the highest soul of our civilization, the greatest 
light sweeps from a loftier tower. 



INTRODUCTION. 35 

and high standing in this communion. 
We take it that the fact of his being so 
openly declared " the Unitarian Chief" is 
only one side of the fact that he is re- 
garded as a perfectly consistent and rep- 
resentative Unitarian, and, as such, a 
force in their theology. 1 Among the 
tracts which are sent out on their mission 
of cot) verting the orthodox to Unitarian- 
ism, is one by Dr. Hedge, and as proceed- 
ing from a distinguished professor and 
lecturer at Harvard College can not but 
be regarded as a suggestive proclamation 
of temperate Unitarian faith. 

Yet when, in 1865, his "Beason in Re- 
ligion " found way to so many studies, 
and was so heartily welcomed as " origi- 
nal," and, for this reason, we suppose, 
" a literary phenomenon ;" and its author 
was hailed as one who would, as a reward 
to this labor, " clear from cloud the path 
of duty and destiny for his fellow men," 
when the leading organ of this body, as 
controlled by one of its most conserva- 

1 Christian Examiner, March, 1867, first article. 
Ibid., September, 1865, first article. 
Ibid., July, 1865, p. 89. 



36 INTRODUCTION. 

tive elements, repeated its enthusiastic 
praise, and crowned him as the "unsur- 
passed advocate " of " Reason in Relig- 
ion," 1 — a fine scholar, George Ripley, who 
has not yet abandoned the creed which 
brought together the Transcendentalists 
at Brook Farm, wrote of it in the New 
York Tribune : 

" The first American work, of any pre- 
tensions to completeness, which attempts 
to apply the principles of the Transcen- 
dental philosophy to religion, on conserv- 
ative grounds." 

In the July number of the Christian 
Examiner for 1865, when the conservative 
Henry W. Bellows was at its head, the 
following words appeared, which were 
only a preparation note to the triumph- 
ant march which was to be executed on the 
same page : 

" Pantheism is the fascinating element 
in Swedenborg, in Spiritualism, in Trans- 
cendentalism, in the new forms of Chris- 
tianity. Theodore Parker was as much 
Pantheist as Theist. He would have been 

1 Christian Examiner, July, 1865, p. 95. 



IN TR OD UCTIO N. 37 

wholly Pantheist, if his adamantine per- 
sonality had not brought his speculation 
to terms whenever it threatened to carry 
him off his feet." 1 

And, as relative to the enthusiastic 
praise of Pan, we have this foot note : 

" I accept the charge of Pantheism," 
says Professor Hedge, " not in the cheer- 
less, impious sense of a God, all world, 
and a world, instead of God, but in the 
true and primary sense of a world, all 
God ; i. e,, a God co-present to all his 
works, pervading and embracing all — a 
God, in apostolic phrase, ' in whom and 
through whom are all things.' If 
this is Pantheism, it is the Pantheism 
which has ever been the doctrine of the 
deepest piety ; it is the Pantheism pro- 
fessed by devout men in every age of the 
world." — Reason in Religion, p. 81. 

But that was in 1865. True, indeed, 
and this comes from the Harvard Lec- 
turer at this time, as that then came from 
her professor of Ecclesiastical History. 

" Our being is deeper than we know ; it 

1 Page 22. 



38 INTRODUCTION. 

undergrounds all conscious experience." 1 
This sentence is not an enigma in the 
light of Dr. Hedge's philosophy. Recol- 
lecting this word, we open at another es- 
say, " On the Origin of Things ;" and 
here, " being" and " existence" are sepa- 
rated, each from the other, and a relation 
which everybody has thought existed be- 
tween them, is dissolved forever. He 
gives us a few scenes in the divided 
household : " Existence presupposes being, 
but being does not suppose existence." 
Being is the ovtioq w, existence the d)lax: 
QVj of the Platonists. Being is universal, 
existence is particular. Beingis absolute, 
existence is relative. Being is eternal, 
existence is transient." 2 

Now, Dr. Hedge would make us think 
one of two things, either that he bad for- 

1 Ways of The Spirit, page 357. He adds to this: 
"This is true of all being, not excepting, perhaps, 
the Divine." This is kind to give God the benefit of 
the doubt. But he says further : " Certainly, no finite 
consciousness reaches to the root from which it 
sprang." One can not help wondering what the 
Eternal God was, without consciousness; and if infi- 
nite consciousness could, do no better. 

2 Ibid., p. 189. 



INTROD UCTION. 39 

gotten on one page what be wrote on an- 
other, or that he desires to lead us into 
what he does not think is very bad, 
though the name bas been in "bad re- 
pute," 1 as be says, Pantheism. If " our 
being is deeper than we know," we have 
being ; or, to write it with full faith in 
his philosophy, we are being, or a mode 
of it. Then, he says that being is " abso- 
lute." We, therefore, are either "abso- 
lute," or a mode of this "absolute." So, 
the Unitarian "Divinity-lecturer" would 
transcend his most obvious Idealism — 
" God, the creator and ruling power of 
the universe, distinguished alone by rea- 
son from the universe;" 2 and have us en- 
joy as a feast of the Gods, our commun- 
ion with Schopenhauer, " the champion 
of the will as absolute," in whose pages 
he is said to have lately "found light," 3 
and who, having followed this philosophy 
to its ultimate life-features, is the leading 

1 Cf. Essay on Pantheism. 

2 Ibid., p. "253. 

3 Cf. Dr. Osgood, Transcendentalism in New Eng- 
land, International Eeview, Vol. 3, No. 6, p. 758. 



40 INTRODUCTION. 

Pessimist of modern thought; 1 while Dr. 
Hedge himself tells us what, if his Theism 
were ours, we would believe — that " Pan- 
theism and Theism are not contradictory, 
but complimentary, the one of the other. 
Theism gives us the holy Person, the 
Providential care, the moral rule ; Pan- 
theism gives us the diffused Presence, the 
all prevading Life, the Divine nearness 
in the outspread landscape. To Panthe- 
ism belongs the world of nature ; to The- 
ism, the world of Spirit." 2 

This and many other such specimens 
of Pantheism — in fact, so many that a 
book of good size is made of them — are 
enough to give the position of this dis- 
tinguished theologian and scholar. And 
in the use of his name, we have passed 
by the names of the other leaders of Uni- 
tarianism, who, taking them on con- 
fessedly Unitarian ground, might have 

1 Cf. Popular Science Monthly, Sup., No. 4, "Schop- 
enhauer in a Nutshell," Especially Prof. Lacroix, 
Methodist Quarterly, 1876, and Arthur Schopen- 
hauer and his Philosophy, hy Helen Zimmern, Lon- 
don, 1877. 

2 Ways of the Spirit, p. 284. 



INTROD UCTION. 41 

been more easily shown to be Pantheists 
than Dr. Hedge. 

We spare the reader any more sketches. 
One acquainted with the history of phi- 
losophy and religion, will supply this 
lack of mention, by the ranks of the past. 
Many, like Servetus, lacked life to pub- 
lish what they thought. A host of Pan- 
theists, like Hegel, thought Christianity 
was Unitarianism. The fertile Schlier- 
macher has his numberless category. 
Cranch, Wasson, John Weiss, have as 
large a band to represent, in the early 
days of Christian thought, as in this ; and 
while Benedict Spinoza's death-day was 
celebrated from the lips of Ren an, 1 the 
Unitarian pulpit and press were building 
their shafts of praise. 

The history of Unitarian life, the 
chronicle of Idealism, the biography of 
Pantheism, are one fact, with its three 
sides. This one fact of life-history has an 
interpretation in its idea-history. With 
tremendous force, it sweeps upon the stu- 

1 Cf. Contemporary Eeview for April, 1877. 



42 INTRODUCTION. 

dent of philosophy, and demands some 
explanation. 

And to us, it is clear that the outer facts 
have a full interpretation from the inner 
facts. Indeed, its only solution as a piece 
of history, seems to be found in this : that 
Unitarian theology is possible only npon 
the principles of Idealism ; and that, as a 
matter of fact in evidence, both in ab- 
stract and concrete life, these principles 
have their foundation in Pantheism. 

It shall be our work to substantiate 
this theory, by the serious use of quota- 
tions from Unitarian sources, upon the 
several doctrines of the Bible, which, by 
their nature, so regulate others, as that, 
from whatever point of these more prom- 
inent teachings we look at the minor 
teachings, the same philosophy must be 
conceded to rule. 

Remembering the right and left wing 
of this school of Christians, we shall give 
no undue prominence to the one, or the 
other, but either by a safe middle course, 
or by the use of opinion from both sides, 
we shall hope to get at the life of Unit- 
arianism, that all fairness may be had. 



PART I. 

THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST. 
PROVIDENCE. 



''Twas the hour when One in Sion 

Hung for lovers sake on a cross- 
When His brow was chill with dying, 
And His soul was faint with loss ! 
When His priestly blood dropped downward, 
And His kingly eyes looked throneward, 
Then Pan was dead. 



' Oh brave poets, keep back nothing ; 

Nor mix falsehood with the whole ! 
Look up Godward : speak the truth in 

Worthy song from earnest soul ! 
Hold in high poetic duty 
Truest Truth the fairest Beauty ! 
Pan, Pan is dead.'''' 

—Elizabeth Baeeett Browning. 



THE 

METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 



PART I. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 

"Divine persons are character born, or, to borrow 
a phrase from Napoleon, they are victory organized." 

R. W. Emerson. 

Perhaps -the distinctive theological posi- 
tion of the Unitarian Church is the denial 
of Deity to our Lord Christ. It is manifest 
to the most cursory thought that nowhere 
in all the miscellaneous work of the spirit 
of Idealism, do its tremendous potencies 
of destruction and construction appear 
at a better advantage. If it longed for 
a subject worthy its genius, it is hence- 
forth satisfied. Its unconcealed aim here 
is to dethrone Jesus Christ, and if splen- 
did equipments and great faculties can 
do anything, here, too, is its crowning 

(45) 



46 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

success. It seems to be entirety confi- 
dent of its transcendent ability, and of 
its general adaptation as an agency to 
this result ; never doubting of success. 
That its efforts are often strategic, is of 
no serious difference in the exhibit, since 
such are only declarations of its inherent 
vitality. It seizes prophecy, as it pushes 
it aside as a reminiscence of the night- 
time, to show its cloud-like nature, and 
even to declare that from the sea whence 
this arose, others like it may come, 1 and 
that it will do, by some strange chemistry, 
what the sum of all its parts could not 
do. When Jesus crystallizes it into Him- 
self (as He is not always allowed to do), 
we confront a man ; and, honest enough 
to admit, that, as a mere man, He is a 
problem of the profoundest sort, even if 
He were to say nothing, that, as He 
speaks, He becomes more and more the 
" Wonderful," we are introduced to 

1 That another Jesus, in answer to another set of 
prophecies, may come, is preached by many beside 
the Apostle of "Aberglaube," Mr. Arnold, and Mr. 
Stedmairs hero-seer. (Octavius Brooks Frothingham, 
Galaxy, Vol. 22, No. 4, p. 478.) 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 47 

Him as such. When we begin to ask 
questions about His relation to certain 
words of an olden time, the accommodat- 
ing nature of published Unitarianism is 
conspicuously at hand. Into the^e ques- 
tions come some records, from which, if 
the ideal-realism of this life be allowed to 
say anything, there is gathered a mighty 
meaning, which meaning grows in view 
of the necessities of human nature and 
the facts of Divine government. 

There is that wonderful " Let us make 
man ;' n and, after a significant piece of 
human history, which, if Idealism blot 
out of Genesis, can not be blotted out of 
the soul of man, where he will read it 
evermore — there is also the promise " The 
seed of the woman shall bruise the Ser- 
pent's head." 2 

When Unitarian translators of the 
Bible produce their results before the 
race, they make Christ say that Moses 
spoke of Him; 3 and when we hunt up the 
reference, we find that Moses made men- 

1 Genesis, i: 26. 

2 Genesis, iii: 16. 

3 Norton's Translation. 



48 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

tion of One who had a causal relation to 
the salvation of the race, and being of 
such a nature that he spoke of Him as of 
God. Hagar called the Angel Jehovah. 1 
It was Jehovah that appeared to Abraham 
in the plain of Mamre, 2 if we are to be- 
lieve anything about the affair at all. 
Abraham talks to Adona'i, in behalf of 
the cities of the plain, 3 as afterward he 
called a place Jehovah- J ireh. 4 Jehovah 
stood above the ladder in Jacob's vision 
and spake, 5 and is identified with the Je- 
hovah of the Abrahamic promise. Jacob 
wrestled with an Angel who blessed him, 
and when Jacob saw Him, he said: "I 
have seen God face to face." 6 Hosea 
talks of it as a place where " even Jehovah, 
God of Hosts, spake with us." 7 The an- 
gel which met Moses at Horeb, turned 
out to be one who said : "I am the God 

1 Genesis, xvi : 7, et seq. 

2 Genesis, xviii: 1. Cf. Dr. Hedge, Primeval 
World of Hebrew Tradition, p. 243. 

3 Genesis, xviii: 23. 

4 Genesis, xxii : 14. 

5 Genesis, xxviii: 10. 

6 Genesis, xxxii: 24. 

7 Hosea, xiii: 3. 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 49 

of thy father, the God of Abraham, etc., 
and Moses hid his face, for he was afraid 
to look upon God. 1 The Prince of the 
Host of the Lord 2 met Joshua, Jehovah 
spake to Gideon, 3 and, like Manoah, Gid- 
eon feared because he had seen God. 4 

We can not think Bible Poetry such a 
ehaos,as the critic of Oxford does ; and that 
it means nothing definitely. Mr. Arnold 
would not want us to treat his theolog- 
ical odes, and those scraps of beautifully 
versified metaphysics, as he advises us to 
treat the Bible. 5 And so we can not help 
finding that David, with all the rest of 
Psalm- writers, meant something. This 
Messiah is unsuccessfully attacked by 
combiued heathenism, and so, for the un- 
foldings of Divine purpose make Ilim 
the Son. of God, give Him an absolute 
sceptre over the universe, set Him in 
clear outline as an object of adoration, 
and the only trust. 6 One might not think 

1 Exodus, xix: 3 

2 Joshua, i: 14. 

3 Judges, vi: 11. 

4 Judges, xvi : 31 

5 Literature and Dogma. 

6 Psalms, xlv, xxii, lxxii, cxix. 



50 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

so much of the 22d Psalm, if Jesus Himself 
had not, in the death-scene, quoted from 
it with reference to Himself; 1 and thus 
brought it into relation to Jesus and that 
act. In it one can hardly help seeing a 
description of this same Christ, who suf- 
fered, and whose future it so definitely 
foretold. Paul, who, we are informed, 
was a u Unitarian," 2 calls attention to the 
45th Psalm by his use of a part of it in 
his letter to the Hebrews, 3 wherein he ap- 
plies it to Jesus ; and the result of this effort 
of attention to u plain people " would be 
that any person whose kingdom was ever- 
lasting and righteous, 4 and who is the 
object of the supreme love of all ages, 5 
who, moreover, could be addressed thus : 
" Thy throne, Oh, God, is forever and 
ever," 6 — that such a one is, as ever, the only 

!Mark, xv : 34. 

2 The Apostle Paul, a Unitarian, Caleb Stetson, 
Boston, A. U. A. 

3 Heb. i: 8. Whatever doubt we may have about 
the authorship of the epistle, we are informed on the 
authority of the tract referred to, that •' he was . . . 
certainly a Unitarian." Note, p. 31. 

4 Verse 6. 

5 Verse 17. 

6 Verse 6. 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 51 

true God. Paul, who, because of a pre- 
judgment from this tract, might be 
thought to be careless in his expressions, 
suggests definitely the 72d Psalm 1 also, 
from which we come with the impression 
that it is a poem about the Redeemer of the 
world, and, granting all that Mr: Arnold 
would ask for the muse, 2 that the God of 
Heaven is thus celebrated. Paul's writ- 
ings are interesting enough to attract us 
to the 110th Psalm, and since Jesus gives 
an exposition of a part of this wonderful 
scripture, it is fraught with a twofold inter- 
est. Now it is simply impossible to get out 
of our minds, the Eternal God, as we read 
the text; and with more light from the 
epistle to the Hebrews, 3 we think Paul 
felt as we do ; and since Jesus has lent 

*Gal. iii: 16. 

2 We would not speak of Mr. Arnold in this connec- 
tion, and especially as an exegete, had not Dr. Hedge 
authorized us, in his edition of the "Essays and Ke- 
views " (Third ed., American Editor's Introduction, 
page xvi), declaring his sympathy with him in as- 
serting that, whatever else he has done, he " has struck 
at the root of orthodox bigotry with his fundamental 
position that the Bible must be interpreted by liter- 
ary and not by ecclesiastical canons." 

3 Ch. i: 13. 



52 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

what that " wonderful personality," as well 
as some of the " greatest and most original 
thoughts," and ' the most direct percep- 
tion of fundamental truths/' 1 might effect, 
as exegetical helps, and then identified the 
face shining through this poetry with 
His own lineaments, 2 we have no doubt 
but that He was either self-deceived, an 
impostor, or Almighty God. 

We must look into another section of 
this "Aberglaube," " floating above " the 
race. And while we use Mr. Arnold's 
suggestive Germanism, we hope that the 
theological taint which he, contrary to 
his own expressed wishes, lias given it, 
may grow no more perceptible. Getting 
away from the dogma-builders, and with 
the text, let us look at that " Aberglaube 
Invading " the lives of these Hebrews, 
and contrive, if we can, what they, u with 
no intention to deceive," whose lives were 
so full of " sweetness and light,'"' born of 
a faith so " serenely Hebraic " that they 
could not deceive, thought and expected. 

ir The Genius of Solitude, W. K. Alger, Chapter 
on Jesus, p. 381, Boston ed. 
2 Matt, xxii: 41-46. 



THE DIVIN1TF OF CHRIST. 53 

Willi "lucidity of mind and largeness of 
temper," 1 sufficient, we hope, we feel with 
them, and come to our note-books with 
these results. 

If Isaiah meant what he said, in any 
measure, he expected a Branch of Jehovah, 
who would do for Israel what Jehovah 
only could do. 2 John 3 has evidently the 
right idea of what Isaiah meant, in an- 
other place, as he seems to assert that the 
coming One would be, as He had been, 
the object of angelic adoration ; 4 also that 
He should be born of a virgin; 5 and, as 
surely as he asserts this, is it plain that he 
thought His Kingdom would be universal 
and everlasting/' and able to accomplish 
what the Omnipotent only could effect, 7 
gaining at last such clear expression of his 
thought as to have called Him Immanuel, 7 
and more — " Wonderful, Counselor, the 

1 Cf. Arnold's Essay on " Falkland " with " Litera- 
ture and Dogma." 

2 Isaiah, iv : 2. 
3 Ch. xii: 41. 

4 Isaiah, vi, 1. 

5 Isaiah, vii. 

6 Isaiah, ix. 

7 Isaiah, vii. 



54 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the 
Prince of Peace."' 1 

Micah certainly regarded Him as the 
Ruler of all God's people, and gave his 
ideas of Him, in saying, that His going 
forth had been from everlasting; 2 that 
His dominion would be universal and 
productive of peace. 2 Joel expected a 
teacher of righteousness, who should give 
what God alone could give, the Holy 
Spirit to "all flesh." 3 

He was Jehovah to Jeremiah, 4 while to 
Malachi He was to be the Destroyer of the 
wicked, 5 and to Zachariah, the Fellow of 
God. 6 Daniel gives Him an Everlasting 
Kingdom; 7 os Zachariah, Universal domin- 
ion, 8 aud Malachi calls Him Jehovah. 9 

In fact, Mr. Arnold would make us so 
" plain/' and so truly save us from soph- 

1 Isaiah, vii. 

2 Micah, vi : 5. 

3 Joel, ii: 23. 

4 Jer. xxiii : 6. 
b Malachi, iii. 

6 Zach. iii : 1-4 ; also ch. xi. 

'Daniel, ii : 44. 

8 Zach., xi. 

9 Malachi, iii: 1-4. 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 55 

istry, that we have enjoyed hearing the 
thundering steps, and seeing the fore- 
gleams of Jehovah's shining feet. 

But this is only prophecy and song; 
and prophecy is only "high living and 
high thinking," for which, in dogma- 
making, we are to have no special respect, 
since, we are told, one " is under no obli- 
gation whatever to accept the conclusions 
to which the highest intellects have ar- 
rived, if they do not appear to his own 
mind and heart accordant with the truth 
and righteousness of God" 1 (upon which 
idea Berkeley's theory of vision seems a 
pretty good parable) ; aud so when the 
Prince of Life comes in person the prob- 
lem is a far greater one. 

His consciousness of His own dignity, 
mission, and relation to the universe is 
more largely expressed than that of any 
other " great character" in history. He 
talks more about Himself than about 
anything else ; and when He touches an}^ 
other subject, it is only as related to His 
work, and thus to Him. Everything He 
illustrates, or it illustrates Him. 

1 Mr. Mays Tract, p. 4. 



56 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

Now, we do not propose giving a re- 
sume of Mr. Liddon, Carl Ullmann, Dor- 
ner, and Young, with their large follow- 
ing, nor to attempt any addition to this 
great argument. The consciousness of 
Jesus concerning Himself, as it issues forth 
in the gospels, in His own words, or 
through those of His nearest friends, is its 
own wonderful argument ; and one who 
has interest in these pages has a knowl- 
edge of the problem before Idealism, in 
which it is proposed to reduce the self- 
asserting God-head of Jesus to some sort 
of manhood ; and such a knowledge as 
to excuse a reproduction of this E~ew 
Testament dogma — thus giving us more 
opportunity to review the literature which 
disintegrates it. With this, then, we pro- 
ceed. 

Leaving for the present the question 
of the validity of the Unitarian system 
of hermeneutics untouched, we drop our 
preconceived ideas of things, and go with 
the leaders of this fold, finding, if possi- 
ble, an answer to the question, " What 
think ye of Christ?" Mr. Alger, 1 after 

1 The Genius of Solitude, pp. 382, 383. 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 57 

giving us a catholic view of this system 
of interpretation, gives us to understand 
that one is not ready to submit the docu- 
ments of this time, even to this court, un- 
less with the understanding (which we 
would think would be agreed to by such 
a lenieut court) that, "whatever can not 
be explained by these considerations is 
to be rejected as spurious ;' n and Wm. El- 
lery Charming, who is far enough behind 
the times now, had enough of this spirit 
to say : " I can conceive of his seating 
himself, in fancy, on the throne of David, 
and secretly pondering the means of his 
appointed triumphs, but that a Jew 
should fancy himself a Messiah, and, at 
the same time, should strip that character 
of all attributes that fired his youthful 
imagination and heart, that he should 
start aside from all the feelings and hopes 
of his age, and should acquire a con- 
sciousness of being destined to a wholly 
new career — this is exceedingly improb- 
able." 2 

[Now, what are these but admissions that 

ir The Genius of Solitude, p. 383. 
2 Works, vol. ii, p. 56. 



58 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

even Unitarian liermenentics are strained 
to accomplish this work of reduction ; that 
we must flee into the denial of much that 
is given as historic fact ; that even if after 
making Jesus the prince of Transcend- 
entalists, and getting him to talk as an 
Oriental Idealist, and pushing Him along 
in conversation, he should even assert 
his Pantheistic faith, and above Boehme, 
Plotinus, and Dschelaleddin, like a Deity, 
should proclaim Himself a Buddha, then 
still would it be necessary to resort to the 
larger rescources of this philosophy, so 
available thus far, and cry out "improb- 
able " and "impossible !" Such is the stu- 
penduous task and such the stupenduous 
ability of Idealism in interpretation. 

Reference would not be made to Dr. 
Daniel Schenkel, if the Unitarian literature 
of his time were not so laudatory and by 
such proceeding, so illustrative of its own 
spirit and tendency. Into the brotherhood, 
he has certainly a right to go, even if unwel- 
come. But, as was before asserted, he is re- 
ceived with a gusto of praise. Broad as 
are his principles of interpretation — such 
in fact as only the richest Idealism could 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 59 

grow — he feels himself authorized to take 
far larger grounds, until indeed, he is so 
Transcendental and so far without the 
reach of evidence that he disregards the 
miraculous entirely ; and has, on this ac- 
count, a special liking for "the present re- 
vision," (for such we are told it is) " of the 
gospel of Mark/' because it "Contains no 
trace of the legend of infancy, nor of the ap- 
pearance of Christ after his resurrection," 
and because " many of the incidents are less 
embellished with miraculous parapherna- 
lia than the corresponding ones in the iirst 
and third gospels," though as he mentions 
sadly, "Mark treated the reports of Peter 
in a free manner, and doubtless wrote his 
gospel under the influence of [other] oral 
tradition, and of the craving for the mi- 
raculous, which was characteristic of the 
early churches." 1 

Such is the education one receives here, 
before he sees a word of the Lord Jesus, 
and with such a self-opinionated Idealism 
is he advised to go into this study. 

1 Character bild Jesu, pp. 239, 240, 3d Ed., 1864, 
quoted by Prof. Christlieb, "Modern Doubt, etc.," 
p. 354. 



60 METAMORPHOSES OF A GREED. 

His Superhuman Personality is impos- 
sible, because, according to this writer, 
these miracles which necessitate a super- 
human personality are impossible. This 
is the exegesis which is courted and praised 
in a periodical edited by a conservative 
Unitarian theologian, who cries for reason 
as the test of faith. 

Not less significant is the word of Mr. 
Alger to the student of Jesus and His 
words. Certainly, if He is explainable on 
any of the principles here hinted at, His 
Superhuman Personality is precluded. 
He says, in an advisatory way, "Most stu- 
dents of the history of Jesus have singu- 
larly neglected to avail themselves of this 
help, a competent investigation of the 
characters and careers of such men as Sam- 
uel, Elijah, David, Pythagoras, Appolo- 
nius, Francis of Assissi, Bernard of Clair- 
vaux, the magnetic natures of the world — 
the fascinating personalities of history, 
the mystic souls of biography, the impe- 
rial wonder-workers of time. Abraham, 
Moses, Isaiah, Zoroaster, Buddha, Socra- 
tes, Mohammed, and scores of the grand- 
est spirits of our race have communed 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 61 

with God at first hand, 1 been inspired by 
hiin, felt themselves intrusted with special 
messages and a general mission, etc." 2 

Let us get a clear idea of Jesus and what 
He will say before we hear Him : this 
seems to be the understanding of this 
communion of thinkers. Not long ago 
the Unitarian Church at Germantown, 
Pa., called the Reverend Samuel Long- 
fellow to its pastorate. His Unitarianism 
was thus admitted. Now, to call him a 
Free Religionist might seem harsh, al- 
though from the same platform on which 
he stood, Francis E. Abbot spoke, and 
there Mr. Ingersoll was earnestly expected. 
But let him pass as a Unitarian clergyman; 
and as one who will inform us of Jesus, 
while he stands to speak words of cheer 
to the Free Religious Association. 

He, also, asserts, that Jesus is not an 
authority, even as Herr Schenkel and Mr. 
Alger see him, — adding : 

"We are free in religion inasmuch as 
we acknowledge no authority out of our- 

1 Mr. Emerson says: "They saw God face to face." 
Essay on Nature, In trod. 

2 The Genius of Solitude, pp. 378, 379. 



62 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

selves ; no limits placed by other men to 
our thinking or to our acting; no limita- 
tions but those that the laws of our con- 
stitution impose upon us, obedience to 
which laws we count to be true freedom, 
— the liberty, unrestrained, to follow our 
own natures, as the indications of God's 
will for us, in thinking, in feeling, and in 
doing." 1 

His predecessor at Germantown will let 
us into the secret of this character, Jesus, 
as he speaks from the same platform : 

"It took fifteen hundred years of Juda- 
ism to make one such as Jesus of Nazareth 
a possibility." 

He adds, since Mr. Higginson and Lucre- 
tia Mott have spoken before him : " The 
word which was with God, and was God, 
and is God, lo, it is here. It has been pro- 
nounced in our hearing to-day. It utters 
itself in the sacred silentness of our soli- 
tudes. We have all heard it. 

" ' Why cross land or sea 
To seek that which long ago has come to thee?"' 2 

1 Proceedings at the Sixth Annual Meeting, p. 77. 

2 Proceedings at the Eighth Annual Meeting, pp. 
41, 44. 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 63 

But the shortest cut to the Unitarian 
Jesus, as a character, is via the indorse- 
ment of Schenkel and Furness, and the 
picture they give. This indorsement is 
such that no digest need be made. 

Of Unitarians, Robert Collyer, the 
strongest force of this religious body in the 
West, lias said and published the least com- 
mendatory reference we know of: " The 
new lives of Christ . . . we are fasci- 
nated by Renan, and bewildered by 
Strauss. We get a glimpse of his pres- 
ence in 'Ecce Homo,' touch the hem of 
his garment in Schenkel, and almost see 
him as he was in Furness." . . .* 

In the Christian Examiner for March, 
1867, under the editorial eye of Henry W. 
Bellows, J. W. Chad wick, since a promi- 
nent name in Unitarian circles, reviews 
Schenkel and Furness. He glorifies Mr. 
Furness for two good enthusiasms — " one, 
for the redemption of the slave from his 
bondage ; the other, to redeem the char- 
acter of Jesus from the unworthy repre- 

J The Life That Now Is, pp. 20, 21. 



64 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

sentations that have disfigured it for so 
many centuries." 1 

The question now is with regard to his 
success in the latter, since the war is over; 
and of his two "enthusiasms," we have the 
information, that "in SchenkeFs 'Char- 
acter of Jesus' he found them melted into 
one. In his sympathy with the common 
people, Schenkel finds the root of Jesus' 
consecration, the key of his divinest pur- 
poses. It was probably this feature of his 
book that attracted Dr. Furness, and in- 
duced him, in spite of much with which 
he did not sympathize, to undertake the 
task that he has performed so hand- 
somely." 2 

About the matter of Miracles and the 
accounts we have of them, the reviewer, 
writing in the spirit of Dr. Furness, 
sa} T s : — "What is natural to one man is not 
natural to another. How* shall we know 
that it was natural for Jesus to arouse 
the dead and rise from his own grave, 
until it has been proved that he did so? 

1 Page 187. 

2 Ibid. 

5 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 65 

It certainly is not natural for other men, 
however good, to do such things. Dr. 
Furness says, ; the manner in which they 
are told ' proves that these stories are 
trustworthy." 1 

If one seeks the "facts in the case" Dr 
Schenkel would serve him well. Our re- 
viewer says : 

" To this part of his labors Dr. Schenkel 
has applied himself with a great deal of 
fairness and ability. His result is not 
very different from that of M. Renan, ex- 
cept that he assigns the fourth Gospel to 
a much lower rank of authenticity. Our 
nearest approach to Jesus is the ' prima- 
tive Mark,' of which the present G-ospel 
by that name is an enlargement and ex- 
aggeration. This opinion is supported 
by various reasons, the most prominent 
of which, after the external testimony, are, 
that it has no literary aim, has much less 
of the legendary and miraculous, contains 
no fabled infancy, and no appearance after 
death. The estimate of Matthew is very 
similiar to that of Renan and Reville." 2 

*Page 189. 
2 Page 190. 



66 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

This is obviously a splendid triumph of 
Idealism. But if Dr.* Schenkel lacks any 
thing in the eyes of Mr. Ckadwick, the 
Unitarian, it is Idealism ; and, however 
great the deficit, Dr. Furness, another 
Unitarian, makes up for it. 

"The third Gospel, by a fine allasion, 
lets us read in the soul of Jesus the mov- 
ing cause of his wishing to be baptized: 
'When all the people were baptized,' then 
Jesus also suffered himself to be baptized." 
It is a beautiful idea; but we should 
like it better, if, in this case, it did not 
seem to be a last resort, on the part of Dr. 
Schenkel, to save us from the supposition 
that Jesus had any sins to repent of. Dr. 
Furness does well to rebuke this prudery. 
From positive impurity or malice, Jesus 
may at this time have been free ; but lie 
was yet far short of his ideal of holiness. 
It was long after that he said to the 
young man who called him "good mas- 
ter, " "Why callest thou me good ?" x 

In very many places, in fact, Schenkel 
is not up to the desire of the Unitarian, 

1 Pase 192. 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 67 

in Transcendentalism, 1 and it is only upon 
this ground that he is criticised ; while, as 
ever, Furness, as a more free-spirited 
interpreter of Jesus Christ, "pleads very 
eloquently for a less intentional and more 
spontaneous conception of his charac- 
ter." 2 

Mr. Chadwick thinks that upon the 
whole, his treatment of Christ's miracles 
" is a great success." 3 So that, the blast- 
ing of the fig-tree is a distorted parable. 

" The miracle of Cana was no miracle: 
Jesus had provided wine in case the first 
supply should be exhausted. The Trans- 
figuration points to a private conversation, 
in which Jesus told a few of his disciples 
of his relation to Moses and the prophets. 
Jairus' daughter was not dead ; Jesus 
himself said so. The raising of Lazarus 
is in the fourth Gospel ; and the fourth 
Gospel is not authentic. The stilling of 
the sea, — it was the stilling of men's fears. 
The feeding of the multitude was a 
spiritual feast. The resurrection of Jesus, 

1 See pp. 195, 196. 

2 Page 196. 
3 Pas:e 199. 



68 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

— it was a purely internal experience, not 
an external fact : that his fleshly hody 
ever rose again we have no reason to be- 
lieve." 1 

In fine, to this reviewer, the book is, 
upon the whole, admirable, since, as he 
says: 

" It reconciles us to a great deal of pas- 
sionate attachment to the person of Jesus, 
to consider, that, Justin proportion as the 
Church discovers him in his real character, 
it must, if it is honest, cease to believe the 
pernicious doctrines it has cherished in 
his name." 2 

Another touch of praise is given in the 
January number of the same periodical 
for 1867. 3 It has a sweep of view which 
comes of standing on one of the promon- 
tories of this system of philosophy, while 
its appearance here, and its authority is 
a sufficient indication of the Unitarian 
character of its theology. Its sound is 
no less clear than strong, and shows the 

1 Pages 199, 200. 

2 Page 200. 

3 Page 105. 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 69 

position of a theology impossible on any 
other grounds. 

With the loose and irreverent treat- 
ment applied to the first three gospels, with 
that most fanciful use he has made of the 
fourth, his laughable abuses of language 
and sentiment, his disregard of the rules 
of criticism, and often of his own philos- 
ophy, his arbitrary exegesis, his self-con- 
tradictory descriptions and ideas, his 
dogmatic pseudo-liberalism, his intense 
dogmatism, in all particulars— with all 
these, which are inevitable fruits of any 
intention to reduce Jesns to the stature 
of man, this writer has to say of the ef- 
fort -} " The work of Dr. Scheukel, which 
has received this high testimony to its 
excellence and value, represents a style 
of moderate and pious liberalism." 2 

How, if this book, with its curtailment 
of the power of the Supernatural, and its 
large deductions from Jesus as a great 

ir rhe Character of Jesus Portrayed: A Biblical 
Essay. With an Appendix. By Dr. Daniel Schenkel, 
Prof., etc. With Introduction, etc., by W. H. Fur- 
ness, D.D., Boston. 

2 The italics are our own. 



70 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

man, is at all representative of a "moderate 
liberalism," and that "pious" what can 
we expect of the radical wing, and shall 
we not number Jesns among the rogues 
of society? Surely the spirit of these 
brigades is the same, for we are informed 
by the same pen, that, with all the de- 
struction Herr Schenkel has wrought, 
his work is "open, here and there, to the 
charge of feebleness and indecision." 1 

1 Christian Examiner, Jan., 1867, p. 106, et seq. 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 71 



CHAPTER II. 

THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 

" When Jesus declared that his truth was perma- 
nent because it was identical with the nature of God, 
in such texts as ( I and rny Father are one,' and 
' Before Abraham was I am,' he did not say a more 
religious thing than Frederic Douglas, when, in the 
depth of the hatred and enmity that almost over- 
whelmed the little minority of abolitionists, he said, 
'One, with God, is a majority.' They took up stones 
to cast at him, but he passed through the midst of 
them, and is as safe as his truth to-day." 

John Weiss. 

"Each morn before the dawn had lifted its pale 

latch, 
Abroad throughout the helpless world did Buddha 

look, 
To see what souls the net of truth that day should 

catch, 
And his enlightening measures in accordance took, 
With sweet persuading voice, to preach the truths 

sublime, 
Whereby alone they could unto Nirwana climb." 
Oriental Poetry. 

In our last chapter, we have cited the 
belief of Dr. Scheukel, and have shown 



72 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

what relation Unitarianism has pro- 
claimed between his utterances and itself. 
Where l>is work is related to Transcen- 
dentalism is plain ; for it is such at the 
moment its existence is be°;un. The 
pages of the magazine from which the 
accounts have been taken are representa- 
tive of the body supporting the periodical, 
and using it as the mouth-piece of their 
system of theology ; and not oi\\j so, but 
they are related to those of the " Dial " as 
one form of thought is to another. For 
example, leaving out Mr. Emerson (the 
heretic of the Unitarian Church because 
true to its spirit), on Jesus, let us take 
these other steps which lead to the same 
goal. 

When we agree that, first, " splendid 
ideas in the mind are the true generators 
of precious emotions in the soul, as seeds 
in the soil are fructified by the sun in 
the Heaven j" 1 and secondly, that " the 
aim of Jesus was to implant in the minds 
of his hearers regenerating sentiments, 
germs of divine truth, religious principles, 
which would take root and bear fruit 

1 Christian Examiner, March, 1865,. p. 177. 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 73 

unto eternal life;" 1 and thirdly, that 
" Buddha is not, as is generally supposed, 
the name of a man. It is a title signify- 
ing simply the sage — wisdom itself incar- 
nate in man, manifesting itself on earth 
whenever men are so sunk in ignorance 
and corruption as to need its regenerat- 
ing power. The world has already been 
visited by several Buddhas, and will yet 
again be visited by others," 2 — when we 
take these steps we can take the next, and 
we are ready, not to pity, but to admire 
the " Walden Transcendentalist," as he 
expresses our heart : 

" I know that some will have hard 
thoughts of me, when they hear their 
Christ named beside my Buddha; yet I 
am sure that I am willing they should 
love their Christ more than my Buddha; 
for the love is the main thing, and I like 
him too. Why need Christians be still 
intolerant and superstitious ? The simple- 
minded sailors were unwilling to cast 
overboard Jonah at his own request." 3 

But whatever it leads to, it potentially 

1 Christian Examiner, March, 1865, p. 159. 

2 Ibid., January 1865, p. 83. 

3 Concord and Merimack, Henry D. Thoreau, p. 72. 



74 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

is; and all its metamorphoses do not 
change its constitution. This most fla- 
grant dethroning of Jesus Christ has its 
literature which extends from His birth 
unto His death, and many are the songs 
and poems which His history, as a factor 
among men, has inspired. In treating 
the history of Jesus, while it seems there 
is none left to read, we are advised to 
respect the "deep irony of God;" 1 and, 
proceeding with such an understanding, 
our w T ay is promised to be clear. But 
Jesus is a problem, and no sooner is He 
deposed than we are to see Him idealized 
into a phantom, and to hear Him utter 
the oracles of an over-wrought and sen- 
sitive soul. 

What meaning, if any, can there be in 
such a Jesus as is left us after all this 
patchiug and repainting has been done? 
Mr. May tells us that " all Unitarians be- 
lieve that Jesus was one with God — in a 
spiritual sense; the sense in which he 
prayed (John xvii, 21-23) that all who 
shall be brought to believe on him might 
become one with him and the Father. 

1 F. H. Hedge in Christian Examiner, Jan., 1867, p. 5. 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 75 

We believe be was wholly devoted to 
God, was led always by bis Holy Spirit, 
and bad no desire but to do bis will. We 
all believe tbat Jesus was not a self-ex- 
istent, bat a created being, dependent 
upon and accountable to the one Supreme, 
whom he often addressed as his Father 
and his God." 1 

Of course, we want to know what this 
means ? JSTot that we may gaze at a pile 
of Unitarian literature, but that, in the 
smallest number of strokes possible, the 
Jesus of the Gospels may thus appear, is 
the question asked. 2 Mr. May adds to our 
questions, when he says : " We believe 
him to be the great exemplar,'' " the most 
excellent person who has ever lived on 
earth," " that, in the highest degree, he 
was the Son of God;" as Dr. Peabody 
also does, when he says : " The exclama- 
tion of Thomas, when he recognized his 
risen Master, "My Lord and my God" is 
quoted as a proof-text for the doctrine 
under discussion, though I am surprised 

1 What do Unitarians believe? p. 6. 

2 Consult this tract on page 7, with Dr. H. W. Bellows 
in Christian Examiner Nov., 1866, •' Unitarian Views 
of Christ/ 



76 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

that it should be. It was a mere excla- 
mation of glad astonishment on the part 
of Thomas^" 1 

These do not give ns any light, but, 
on the contrary, add to the darkness ; 
and so true is this that it may be given 
as a safe induction, that Unitarian theol- 
ogy is enigmatical or transcendental, 
and these in the highest degree. It is 
impossible to get any clear ideas of Jesus 
from the conservatives which are not ani- 
mated with Idealism such as " appeared 
in 1842 ;" and when Unitarianism is clear, 
it is confessed Transcendentalism in the- 
ology. The radical wing must explain 
what is an enigma in the mouths of the 
conservatives, while, whenever self-illus- 
trative, conservatism shall speak. 

The Kev. W. R. Alger can explain what 
Mr. May and Dr. Peabody mean, as he 
gives his idea of Jesus. After giving 
Him such limitations as almost make Him 

1 Tract: Was Jesus Christ identical with the Al- 
mighty Creator? p. 21. On this topic consult also of 
the tracts published by t-he American Unitarian As- 
sociation, 4th series No. 2; 4th series No. 14; 4th se- 
ries No. 12; 4th series No. 10; 1st series No. 96; 1st 
series No. 221. 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 77 

a self-deceived or insane man, we have 
the following in another strain : " He 
was a soul so pure as to be an organ of 
the Spirit of the Whole ; that is, an in- 
spired representative of God. He was 
a genius so fine and strong as to master 
by spontaneous intuition moral and re- 
ligious principles and sentiments, which 
the wisest philosophers and poets, aided 
by the richest training of the schools, 
have apprehended only after a lifetime 
of toil and aspiration. His organism 
was so interiorly soft and deep, that ful- 
filling emotions of peace and bliss, such 
as the rarest mystics in their highest 
moments have known, were his effort- 
less acquisition. The greatest and most 
original thoughts, the most direct percep- 
tion of fundamental truths, the most beau- 
tiful and persuasive images, the most en- 
trancing expansions of feeling, came to 
him so like instincts unawares, that he 
could not claim them as his own, but only 
attribute them to Gocl, the Infinite 
Father, with whom the sweet simplicity 
of his self-renounced heart felt itself in 



78 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

unison through all the loveliness and 
mystery of His works and ways," 1 

Mr. Alger makes Him excel the poets 
in "apologues" and in "dialect," and 
puts Him at the very head of reform. He 
informs us that " his receptive and re- 
sponsive capacity of genius brought him 
into unparalleled intimacy of fellow- 
ship with humanity, nature and God, 
made him independent of the teachings 
of others, gave him a supreme authority, 
ingravidated his utterance as with the 
weight of worlds." These considera-. 
tions go far to remove any difficulty 
many earnest students find in what seems 
to be "the astounding arrogance of his 
personal claims," or "the unapproachable 
egotism of many of bis declarations." 
"First," says Mr. Alger, "there is great 
reason to believe that mucb of tbis self- 
assertory language was either not used 
by him at all, or was employed by him 
in an official sense." " Secondly, in 
several instances it is clear that the osten- 
tatious assumption is only apparently 
such." "Thirdly," He often means not 

1 The Genius of Solitude, Essay on Jesus. 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 79 

Himself, " but the divine quality in him." 
As an example of the application Mr. 
Alger makes of this last consideration, 
we ask attention to this : " < I and my 
Father are one !' here he does not sink 
God into himself — boundless egotism — 
but identifies himself with God — bound- 
less renunciation — feels that God inspires 
him, lives and speaks in him, and does 
the works. He so surrenders and blends 
himself with the truth, as to represent it 
and say : ' I am the truth.' He found 
himself in possession of great moral and 
spiritual truths — truths far in advance 
of his time. He did not know how they 
came, but felt that he did not himself 
achieve them. He supposed that God 
had given them to him and laid on him 
the mission of proclaiming them." He 
identified the revealing spirit with God ; 
and justly so. It is God alone who can 
give to the finite and perishable individ- 
ual the perception of the universal and 
eternal. . . . Correctly understood, 
there is no egotism in these declarations ; 
they are natural and dignified expressions 



80 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

of the facts in the case ; they are the 
style proper to the seer." 1 

So, then, we have Him, the seer of Ju- 
dea, as Ralph Waldo Emerson is the seer 
of New England — a splendid specimen of 
the Transcendentalist. 

He says : " I and my Father are one," 
as Mr. Emerson says : " I am owner of 
the sphere." Jesus cries out, "I have 
finished the work thou didst give me to 
do," as Mr. Emerson sings : 

" As a bird trims her to the gale, 
I trim me to the storm of time;" 

and even as one says: "I am the light 
of the world," the other asserts with us 
sublime transcendence to any logical pro- 
cess, " I become a transparent eye-ball !" 

Is this the idea of Jesus? Then have 
we not appreciated His Transcendental- 
ism, or His moral Idealism ? And if so, 
some of His professing disciples need this 
preaching : 

" Not one man out of a million at this 
day can fathom by any direct perception 
the full meaning of his utterances, 

1 The Genius of Solitude, Essay on Jesus. 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 81 

1 Blessed are the poor,' etc. . . . How 
few are competent to appreciate bis in- 
tense moral Idealism, as shown both in 
his ethics and in hi s doctrine of prayer; 
a practical Idealism far superior to the 
speculative Idealism of Berkeley or 
Fichte. His interior realization was so 
entrancing as to make the inner con- 
sciousness ail, the outer fact nothing."' 

' ; He removed his tribunal from the outer 
court of words and acts, where the Rab- 
binical priests held theirs, and established 
it in the inner sanctuary of thought and 
affections. His expansiveness of intel- 
lectual sensibility seems competent to 
any greatness. When blamed for busy- 
ing himself on the Sahbath, he said: . . . 
" My Father worketh hitherto and I 
work." What an unimaginable height 
of life such a level of thought implies." 1 

Then, He is the prince of Transcenden- 
talists, and would have been a charm 
at Brook Farm, or a brilliant speaker 
on the Free Religious platform. He 
felt the " mystics rapture." and would 

x The Genius of Solitude. Essav on Jesus 



82 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

have been in league with Mahmoud, say- 
ing : 

"Mine ego hid the sun, as would a mountain tall; 
One ray of light quick smote the mass to atoms small, 
And through the mountain shape of dust full streamed 

the light 
Of thousand suns, all shining supersensually bright. 
Within a drop of dew was chained by magic guile, 
The banished, vast Euphrates, as a poor exile. 
The earth before me lay, a heap of dusky clods. 
One draught this beggar drank of the pure wine of 

God's, 
And grew a Shah. En'ch mote a Caucasus became. 
The black veil rose from round each atom's core of 

flame ; 
The welkin roof was rent, and Deity I saw 
Sole brooding o'er a world of shoreless light and 

awe." 1 

Since, then, he is admirable, and is so 
for his wonderful Idealism, we take it 
that a theology which thus expresses it- 
self is another form of the same spirit. 

But is there not another phase of this 
philosophy as applied to Jesus? Mr. 
Alger is not alone. As if to settle what 
(jnitarianism means by the title, Son of 
God, says Dr. Bartol before entranced 

1 Alger's Poetry of the Orient. 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 83 

Unitarian assemblages, what was after- 
ward published in the chief periodical of 
that church : 

" Strange that the incarnation should 
have been perverted from a principle into 
a circumstance ! It is a fact of the uni- 
versal order, let the degrees of it vary as 
they may. Wherever truth has shone, 
or purity lighted her lamp, or goodness 
kindled its flame, since the morning stars 
sang together, in this vase of clay there 
has been something of the incarnation of 
God. ' I and my Father are one,' said 
Jesus; and so it is declared Jesus was 
God. Yes, as the spirit of God shone 
through him without measure to make 
him the providential man of all history. 
But whoever the spirit of God shines 
through is as God, and reveals him to us. 
i Beware of man-worship/ it was said to 
a certain ardent admirer. ' I do not wor- 
ship the man, but the God in him,' was 
the instant and indignant reply. Let us, 
man and woman, worship him in one an- 
other, as the dvinff Bunsen said to his 
w 7 ifc, ' In thee L have loved the Eternal.' 
Doubtless, of the Eternal he had seen in 



84 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

her more than in the earth or the sky. 
In my precious brother or sister I see 
more of liim than in sea or sun, as I 
chilclishty saw him once in my father and 
mother/ l " Immanuel, God with us and in 
us, discovered or unknown, is the essence 
of every soul, as well as the influence of 
any historic personage. Jesus is son of 
God only, and eternally begotten. But 
has God only one son ? The notion that 
from everlasting he has not other children, 
without number, is of theological ab- 
surdities the chief." 2 

" Why find any duel between reason and 
Christ's authority, when Christ's author- 
ity is but reason to us answering to rea- 
son in us ?" 3 

When the Unitarian ministry talk from 
the Free Religious Association platform, 
they do not lose their faith, nor is their 
relation to the church changed. 4 We 

1 Christian Examiner, Jan., 1865, "The Unity of 
the Spirit," p. 29. 

2 Ibid., p. 30. 

3 Ibid., page 43. 

4 Of. Proceedings of Free Religious Association at 
sixth annual meeting, pp. 84, 85, where Eev. Henry 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 85 

have Mr. Calthrop calling Jesus "the 
flower of the Jewish religion," while he 
proceeds to exempt Jesus from, the charge 

Blanchard, of the Unitarian Church, declares this 
affinity an organic one, in these strong words: 

"Now, I want to say just one word concerning 
what seems to me a part of this Free Religious Asso- 
ciation's splendid work. On Monday, before I came 
down here, thinking about your meeting, I took 
down one of Mr. Emerson's books, which you know 
we all read, and then re-read, and read again, and 
never get tired of reading; and I said to myself, 'I 
will look up that great lecture of his on the Trans- 
cendentalist ;' and I read it all through. Then I 
said to myself, 'Now, if that Free Religious Associ- 
ation of ours will make that one of their tracts and 
send it out into the world, what a blessed thing that 
will be!' It seems to me that is the mission of the 
Free Religious Association, instead of throwing so 
much of its weight, as its history shows it has, in an- 
tagonism to Christianity, or so much of its weight, 
as I think its history, fairly and fraternally judged 
by its declarations and principles will prove that it 
has, against Unitarianism. Let Christianity and 
Unitarianism go down, if needs they must; there is 
this great work of reviving that Transcendentalism 
which Emerson preached so nobly in the years gone by. 
For what I hate, as one man looking over the world, 
is this lowness of aim, is this living merely in the 
material, is this effect of science (transitory, as I be- 
lieve) in making men think merely of material 
things. Transcendentalism! The invisible above 



86 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

of jealousy of Buddha, and exalts him, 
it seems, to a place with Buddha, believ- 
ing that " he yearns to do for the West 
what Buddha longed to do for the East, 
and that the best results are reached if 
Jesus clasps hands with Buddha, and 
says : ' Brother, the grace of God conies 
to us both, anointing us for our tasks.' " l 

At the same meeting, we have Dr. Bar- 
tol suggesting that "Jesus would not have 
been crucified at three score." 2 

Neither does the fact of a certain author- 
ship detract from auy significance which 
a work may have, if such full and free 
indorsement be given it as we have seen 
come from the Unitarian Church, for in- 
stance; to Doctor Schenkel's ' Character- 
bilcl Jesu' ; and we are bound to take for 
what they are worth, all such ideas of Jesus 
and His works, as come of His errors in 
estimating men, His inward sinfulness, 

the visible ! That is the work for the Free Religious 
Association to accomplish." 

" I pray God, therefore, to bless the Free Religious 
Association as much as I pray him to bless the 
American Unitarian Association." 

1 Proceedings at the Seventh Annual Meeting, p. 37. 

2 Ibid., p. 59. 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 87 

His lack of goodness, u His psychical 

power of calming troubled souls," the 
mistaking Himself and His consciousness 
and the rich stream of legends about 
Him, in the light of the indorsement they 
get at the hands of this body of thinkers. 
That it is Idealism is admitted ; that it is 
weak, all criticism but that of the Unita- 
rian Church holds. Xo man calls Strauss' 
u Life of Christ" a weak book; and 
why ? Because of the difference in spirit 
from Doctor Schenkel's sketch ? Xo ; for 
there is no difference in spirit. The dif- 
ference between Strauss and Schenkel is 
that between an Idealist strong enough 
to follow the lead of his philosophy to 
its goal, and an Idealist lost in the first 
blushes of the same philosophy. 

To say the least, Sckeukel is an Ideal- 
ist ; Strauss is a Pantheist ; as Schenkel 
is weak, and Strauss is strong. The 
great souls of Idealism do not stop with 
Schenkel, but live with Strauss, since 
Pantheism is Idealism at its best. 

But we think that Schenkel himself 
did not stop there. In fact, his greatest 
work is proof that he could not stop 



88 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

there. We agree that Orthodoxy is not 
fondly loved at the office of the West- 
minster Review ; that this noble periodi- 
cal is not afflicted with any passionate 
concern for the maintenance of her dog- 
mas ; and this being so, when the West- 
minster Review touches critically upon 
the publications of liberalism, we expect 
that there are grave reasons for such ad- 
verse exposition as may he found in its 
columns on contemporary literature. 
When, therefore, the Westminster Re- 
view takes up "Die ChristlicheDogmatik 
vom Standpunkte des Gewissens aus dar- 
gestell-t," von Dr. Danie Schenkel, etc., 
aud handles it with freedom, though it 
seems often as if to express its fuller 
sympathy, we have a right to believe that 
there are strong reasons for so doing. 
The assertion that " no more valuable 
contribution to subjective theology has 
appeared since the day of Schleiermacher 
himself," naturally enough suggests a re- 
lation between them even more important 
than that of greatness or of mere simi- 
larity upon the idea of " subjective the- 
ology." We have the following : 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 89 

"Religion is peculiar to man. He is 
distinguished from all other beings that 
we know of, as much by his religious 
consciousness as by his reason and his 
will. There must be some spiritual faculty, 
some inner organ proper to this special 
capacity. Strictly speaking, this must 
be a faculty of the spiritual, and not of 
the sensual soul, according to the defec- 
tive conception of Schleicrmacher. More- 
over, if such a faculty or organ is required 
as shall give an immediate relation be- 
tween God and man, it can be neither 
reason nor will; for these immediately 
are stimulated by and act upon that nat- 
ural system of things which surrounds 
us. But the 'conscience' is a specific 
spiritual faculty testifying to the con- 
sciousness, not by inference, but immedi- 
ately, of Him from whom it proceeds. 
' Ought,' and ' ought not,' are imperative 
and unmistakable, not indirect and syllo- 
gistic. 

" So far, indeed, does Professor Schenk- 
el's doctrine contrast itself with that of 
Schleiermacher, that he says : 

"'So little does the spirit receive from 



90 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

the world its awakening to a conscious- 
ness of God, that rather is this conscious- 
ness continually darkened and oppressed 
by it, and the truth of the proposition is 
undoubted — consciousness of God and 
consciousness of the world are conversely 
related to each other; as this becomes 
stronger that becomes weaker, and as 
this becomes weaker that becomes 
stronger' — p. 140. 

" Nevertheless the conscience has a 
double function ; it is both the spiritual 
faculty whereby we are immediately con- 
scious of the presence of God in us — -this 
is its religious function ; and it is al>o a 
regulative power, when, by reason of our 
relation to a sensible world, we fall away 
or are in danger of falling away, from 
God. This is its moral function. We might 
say of it, on the one side, that it is a wit- 
nessing spirit, and on the other, that it is 
a striving spirit. Religion is thus that 
consciousness of his own being which re- 
veals itself to man in his conscience, and 
certifies him of his immediate personal 
union with God, whose voice the con- 
science is. And morality is the expres- 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 91 

eion of the necessity for the restoration 
of that perfect union, when it has been 
Interrupted or impaired. The religious 
function of the conscience is generative 
or productive. Its moral function is 
restorative, regenerating, or renewing. So 
there are two important distinctions be- 
tween Dr. Schenkel and the school of 
Schleiermacher-- one respecting the origin 
of the conception of God, which, with 
Dr. Schenkel, is not dependent on the 
external world, but internal and immedi- 
ate; the other in the coincidence or in- 
separableness of religion and morality." 1 
This is a phenomenon. Two such 
souls as Schenkel and Schleiermacher be- 
ginning with the same organic principles, 
and ending with " two important distinc- 
tions!" It is, indeed, a greater wonder, 
when we find out from our critic that the 
trouble with the definition of Schleier- 
macher was that it was " defective." If 
these things are true, and that they are 
we can not question, it is a singular thing 
that two such "important distinctions" 

1 Westminster Keview, 1858, October number, p. 
310. 



92 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

shov.ld arise, and especially as every 
scholar knows that Schleiermacher should, 
with great truth, be called a Pantheist, 
and that liberal theology should rejoice 
lustily in the proof Dr. Schenkel has fur- 
nished of the personality of God. But 
onr critic quenches this astonishment by 
adding : 

"Our learned Heidelberg professor has 
a great horror of Pantheism ; he esteems 
the doctrine of Schleiermacher, to be 
essentially Pantheistic ; and he is not 
content with modifying or supplementing 
it, but he must absolutely be rid of it. 
Yet if he were not frightened with that 
bugbear we think he would allow to 
Schleiermacher's dependence theory a 
place at least in the formation of the re- 
ligious idea. Historically, as it were, the 
sense of forces manifested in the external 
world is the source to man of his concep- 
tion of the superhuman, of the divine. 
The perception of his relation to those 
forces, and of his own comparative fee- 
bleness in their presence, by generating 
a sense of dependence, supplies a rudi- 
mentary conception of God — a God re- 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 93 

garded, it is true, with awe and fear — a 
God not. known as yet either to be good 
or bad. 

The moral part of the conception of 
God supervenes ; and when the moral 
sense has been developed, conscience plays 
an important part. It will appear, how- 
ever, on discussion, that the appeal to the 
conscience as an evidence of the presence 
of God with the human spirit is neither 
conclusive against a Pantheistic scheme, 
nor conclusive of that presence being 
immediate. The Pantheist will undoubt- 
edly admit that the phenomena of the 
conscience, as well as the other inward 
phenomena, are manifestations of the 
Deity. But he will demur to the assump- 
tion that the phenomena of conscience 
should be considered immediate mani- 
festations of Deity, more truly than any 
other functions of the soul on which man 
can reflect ; he would also have much to 
say on the genesis of conscience itself. 
Dr. Schenkel must likewise expect it to 
be pointed out that he has not supplied 
any proof of the ' personality ' of God, 
for though the conscience be admitted as 



94 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

an evidence of the presence of God with 
the human person, it does not thence fol- 
low that he is a person. The question 
of personality is, however, discussed, pp. 
25-27. Further, while Dr. Schenkel at- 
tributes the disturbance of the union be- 
tween the divine and human spirit to the 
influence upon the latter of an external 
world, his adversaries will probably be 
able to thrust him logically into the ad- 
mission of a dualism." 1 

All of which is to say, -by the high 
authority of this periodical, so sympa- 
thetic as touching the whole work that 
it adds regretfully, u we can only once 
more cordially recommend the work to 
the examination of unprejudiced theo- 
logians, '-that to accept the idealistic the- 
ology, the theology of which " Character 
bild Jesu " is the healthy issue, which 
operates so strongly throughout this 
Work as to edify this famous critic, and, 
at the same time, to save the person- 
al God, is impossible; that the Uni- 
tarian, or any other, who may use these 

1 Westminster Keview, 1858, October number, p. 
310. 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 95 

principles of world- interpretation, con- 
science-interpretation, history-interpreta- 
tion, and Scripture-interpretation, is pow- 
erless in the hands of the Pantheist, what- 
ever his "horror of Pantheism" may be. 
Most sad, ifanythinghe has said is true, 
is it that Dr. Bartol has not been u faith- 
ful to the grace already given ;" and very 
strange is it, while it is a sure test of real 
greatness of soul, that many of this com- 
munion have not taken higher grounds. 
The greatest soul ever nourished by the 
Unitarian Church could not be satisfied 
with Idealism in any but its best form, 
and he who wrote of Jesus : " One man 
was true to what is in you and me. He 
saw that God incarnates himself in man, 
and evermore goes forth anew to take 
possession of his world. He said in this 
jubilee of sublime emotion : I am divine. 
Through me God acts; through me 
speaks. Would you see God, see me ; or 
see thee, when thou also thinkest as I 
now think ;"* has also sung : 

" And conscious law is king of kings.'' 
1 Address to the Divinity Students, vol. 1, p. 69. 



c,G METAMORPHOSES OE A CREED. 

The fact is, there is no intellectual stop- 
ping place for any strong or active soul, 
from Idealism in a so-called liberalism, 
IP Idealism in iron-handed Pantheism. 
j>ack of all this Pantheistic light-drawing 
^hieh we have quoted, and to which the 
t^rm theology has been applied, the very 
statements of present-day Unitarianism, 
-which are a possibility because real on 
tpe Unitarianism of other days, are Pan- 
theistic either by confession or in result. 

Says Dr. Bartol: " Doubtless, the Trin- 
ity began as an honest attempt to express 
Q-od's relationship. But why limit him 
t c ) three? Three numerically considered 
a s expressing God, is not a whit more, or 
n parer the truth than one. It is aston- 
ishing through what a round of meta- 
physical ingenuities, natural symbols, and 
fanciful images, a supposed necessary 
Ifrreeness has been pursued, till it has be- 
came like the puzzle of ivory pieces in a 
child's play. But there can be no limi- 
tation of divinity to three persons. Are 
n( )t all personalities, in heaven, earth, or 
h<3ll, his offspring ? What, then, is the 
Trinity but a merely provisional and 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 97 

transitory notion ? Can articulate per- 
sonality be predicted of deity? God is 
not, as distinguished from others, a per- 
son at all. He is the unfathomable 
mystery of person itself, the deepest fact 
of life and human consciousness. He is 
of countless personalities parental, pro- 
lific root and whole." 1 

If not personal, he is impersonal, " of 
all personalities parental, prolific root 
and whole." Whether personality be 
"articulate" or not, is far from the ques- 
tion ; and we are left with the imper- 
sonal. 

But there is another route to Panthe- 
ism well-trodden and direct. According 
to this doctrine and the statement of Mr. 
Alger, that Jesus was " not unlike others 
in kind, however superior in degree," 2 
that which makes the Christ different 
from any man is the degree of God- 
manifestation in Him ; that, indeed, the 
difference between Jesus and any violet 
or cascade (since there is no trinity, and 

1 Christian Examiner, Jan., 1865, p. 69, u The Unity 
of the Spirit." 

2 The Genius of Solitude, Essay on Jesus. 



98 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

personality is " articulate " or not at all) 
lies in degree of God-manifestation ; all 
of which is Pantheism liner than Schel- 
ling thought : " matter is extinct mind," 1 
and as sweet as that of Mr. Emerson : 

" In the divine order, intellect is pri- 
mary ; nature, secondary; it is the mem- 
ory of the mind. That which once ex- 
isted in intellect as pure law has now 
taken body as Nature. It existed already 
in the mind in solution ; now, it has been 
precipitated, and the bright sediment is 
the world. We can never be quite 
strangers or inferiors in nature. It is 
flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bone." 2 

In thus treating of this dogma, the 
Deity of Christ, one is not satisfied with 
any idea he may have gained from the 
other writers of the Bible, until he has 
used due diligence to find out what Paul, 
who is spoken of by a tract, issued from 
the Unitarian publishing house, as a brave 
man, " of great talents, extended learn- 
ing, and ardent zeal;" 3 which "give him 

1 Ueberweg's Hist, of Phil., vol. ii, p. 218. 

2 The Method of Nature, Works, vol. i, p. 108. 

3 The Apostle Paul, A Unitarian, p. 3. 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 99 

a claim to the first rank among the in- 
spired apostles of our Savior." He is 
commended for his " manly and fearless 
principles which these passages exhibit:" 

" I have kept back nothing which was 
profitable unto you." " I have shunned not 
to declare unto you all the counsel of God." 

We also have it stated here that 
" we may believe his testimony concern- 
ing the character and office of Jesus 
Christ, with entire confidence that it 
could not have been erroneous or defec- 
tive in any important respect." 

To one, who, on going into St. Paul's 
writings, has met with these tracts, these 
general statements are entertaining. But 
who can keep from the sight of the title 
of this publication " The Apostle Paul, 
A Unitarian ?" After reading the first 
pages, with the Acts and the Epistles in 
hand, one begins to search for some prin- 
ciples of his own, and he finds this self- 
explanative : Paul thought that Jesus was 
either God or Man, as this is important, 
and his testimony " could not have been 
erroneous or defective in any important 
respect." One would say also, that if 



100 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

Paul spoke of Jesus as Very God, while 
Jesus was very man, it was Pantheism; 
since it would be to identify human na- 
ture with the Divine. So, too, one would 
say that if the Bible were to be inter- 
preted as any other book, full confidence 
ought to be given to Paul, as he speaks 
of Jesus, and especially because of Paul's 
positive assertion that he " kept back 
nothing which was profitable." 

Speculating no more, then, about com- 
mon sense in interpretation, and accept- 
ing the idea that Unitarianism is so glad 
to borrow from Mr. Jowett, " Interpret the 
Scripture like any other book" l let us seek 
Paul's i.dea of Christ. Is he God-man, or 
man only? But as this little tract de- 
clares its faith — after an examination, we 
have a faith too. It is that Paul was a 
Trinitarian ; that he thought that Jesus 
w T as God; and because he could make no 
" important" error, Jesus was very God. 

Furthermore, we think that the idea of 
this essay is'el early illustrated in the tract 
before us ; that, granting Paul a Unitarian, 

1 Dr. F. H. Hedge's edition of the " Essays and Ee- 
views," p. 418. 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 101 

and that he addressed a man, and spoke of a 
man, he did address him and speak of him 
as God ; that if Paul believed what he said, 
and we must believe it, sinee our rule is, 
" Interpret the Scripture like any other 
book," he believed God and man identi- 
cal in nature, which, of course, is Panthe- 
ism ; that Unitarian isn't avoids this only 
by a thorough application of the princi- 
ples of Idealism is evident, and because 
Idealism has its foundation in Pantheism, 
in either case are we left with Pantheism 
as our final philosophy and creed. 

We can not hut take this tract as repre- 
sentative, while we overlook the ground of 
controversy, touching the few T est possible 
number of points. If Paul wrote as one 
would in ordinary life (and he could not 
have made an error of importance), he cer- 
tainly believed Jesus to he God as well as 
man, when to the Romans he wrote of Him 
as the ohject of faith, the Son of God, the 
Author of the Infinite God's gift*, the 
Holy Spirit, Providence, and Judge of all; 
but if he wrote from such an atmosphere 
as that of Brook Farm, or that in which 
Dr. Hedge wrote " Ways of the Spirit," 



102 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

we can imagine his language to mean al- 
most everything or nothing. 

And if one would object to such an air, 
he would probably be informed, in the 
words of the former leader of the Brook 
Farm Community — by him who told Haw- 
thorne the mysteries of milking cows, who 
"was as influential as any in planting the 
seeds of the Transcendental philosophy in 
good soil" 1 — that he was a superficial 
thinker, finding the suggestions of Paul 
and ; 'Dr. Hedge, too refined, too subtle 
for his acceptance ; perhaps even for 
his comprehension ;" or a " sceptic, com- 
plaining ofLtoo urgent demands upon the 
sentiment of faith :" or a dogmatist, "feel- 
ing the atmosphere of thought too at- 
tenuated for his habitual breathing;" but 
that " the lover of contemplation, the 
student of divine mysteries, who delights 
to haunt the stream that flows fast by the 
oracles of God, will welcome these mus- 
ings . . . as a stimulus to his faith 
and an aid to his communion and fellow- 
ship with the Universe." 2 

1 Transcendentalism in New England, p. 322. 

2 Geo. Ripley in N". Y. Tribune, Jan. 4, 1878. 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 103 

If Paul wrote in earnest to those Ro- 
mans, when he said of Jesus, " Over all, 
God blessed forever," * he thought Him 
God. Our tract 2 informs us, with a hint 
that it represents this school on the topic, 
that we are wrong in so believing; and 
takes us to the work of the rationalist of 
1529. We are to see him on his way 
home, perhaps from the college of Sor- 
bonne, after the censure which had been 
pronounced upon his Idealism. 3 Here is 
the finest specimen of the Idealism of 
Erasmus; and though it gives no men- 
tion of his name, and thus no credit either 
for his full stop after zaza odpxa, his de- 
fense of u reason " and of " free thought," 
or his opinions of Luther and Scholas- 
ticism, it appropriates his punctuation, 
with the same spirit which made its ad- 
vances to a "freer version " — all of which 
will not make a sound exegesis think but 
that, even if Paul were a Unitarian, he 

1 Ch. ix., verse 5. 

2 The Apostle Paul, A Unitarian, p. 28. 

3 Cf. Butler's Life of Erasmus. Guercke's Kirch- 
engesebichte, vol. iii., p. G4. De Libero Arbitrio. 
Erasmi Stultitise Laus. 



104 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

ought to have written more carefully. 
Nothing, indeed, but the highest waves 
of Transcendentalism in interpretation 
could wash away the antithesis between 
xara adpxa and 6sbz euAoy/jroz, and only 
the same philosophy, whether by another 
feat, not-impossible at all in the nature of 
things, it is made to fall under Mr. Jowett's 
rule, or not — could interrupt the manifest 
rising of Paul's mind to a crowning sum- 
mit of belief, and make it announce so 
spontaneously what Unitarians would say 
was on a totally different subject. 1 
• Here, however, so lively an Idealism 
has not exhausted itself. Passing over 
those ascriptions of Divine power to Je- 
sus, the addresses to and sayings concern- 
ing Him as the Ruler of all things, and 
as very God, in the epistles to the Cor- 
inthians, Ephesians, Philippians, and G-a- 
latians, we can not help hearing Paul, 

1 Hodge, Systematic Theology, vol. i., p. 511. Van 
Oosterzee, Christian Dogmatics, vol. ii., p. 593. Van 
Oosterzee, Theology of the New Testament, p. 300. 
Liddon, Our Lord's Divinity, Bampton Lectures, for 
1866, pp. 312, 313. 314. Moses Stuart, Letters to 
in Christian Treasury, p. 23. 



THE DIVISITY OF CHRIST. 105 

when he sets himself at giving the true 
doctrine of the nature of Jesus, in oppo- 
sition to what had grown out of the 
theory of emanation, which had reached 
the churches of Asia Minor. And when 
he talks so earnestly to the Colossians, 1 
if it were a friend from whom one had 
received a letter, one would say that he 
was defending, while he clearly set forth 
the Deity of Jesus. This ' Trpco-oroxoz 
T,6.ar^ '/.riazco^ does not escape a disinte- 
gration. "Born before every creature" 
is treated by confessing Socinianism, as 
defining Jesus, the leader of a new dispen- 
sation ; and from this, Arians give him 
the place of the first-horn of intelligent 
beings. 2 Our friendly tract is even more 
liberal than most Unitarian publications 
and offers its exegesis as follows : " The 
first born of all creatures" — this obvi- 
ously places him first among created be- 
ings, but still one of them, who derived 
his being from Gocl. Whether this means 
first in time, or first in dignity, or both, 

1 Ch. i., verso 15. 

2 Hodge, vol. i., p. 515. 



106 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

does not at all concern the present in- 
quiry." 1 

Almost as finely put is the following: 
" ' For it pleased the Father that in him 
should all fullness dwell.' This is the 
doctrine of St. Paul ; the blessed Savior 
is not a common man, as some philoso- 
phers have asserted — he is the Son and 
Messenger of God, with divine wisdom 
and power, ' for in him dwelleth all the 
fullness of the divinity.' -He is not the 
Supreme God, as some Christians believe, 
' for it pleased the Father that in him 
should all fullness dwell,'" 2 while the 
first, perhaps, illustrates more successfully 
the audacity of this philosophy, both in 
translation and comment. 

And when looking for Paul's idea in the 
pastoral epistles we read what he wrote 
to Titus and Timothy, we think that cer- 
tainly we have risen to so clear a zone that 
there can be no controversy ; that espe- 
cially did Paul make a complete state- 
ment in the letter to Timothy, when he 
said : " According to the command of 

1 The Apostle Paul, A Unitarian, p. 24. 

2 Ibid. 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 107 

God our Savior, even our Lord Jesus 
Christ," x as he spoke to Titus, " of the 
great God our Savior Jesus Christ." 2 
But a Unitarian theology enshrouds the 
plain meaning of this latter scripture 
with a haze of Idealism, in which one 
can not see that not one word of the con- 
text means anything unless this is to be 
thus translated; nor js any one able to 
tell whether c rou fizydXoo 0sou xal acovYjpo^ 1 
lias any reference at all. Natural order 
is reversed. Winer, DeWette, and Smith 
advance to help us, while our little tract 
gives the following, as an example of 
clearness and sound interpretation : 

" The epistle to Titus was also a charge 
to a minister, whom the writer exhorted 
to adhere to ' sound doctrine.' Does 
Paul address him in the manner of a 
Trinitarian ? Far from it. He is care- 
ful to distinguish between God and 
Christ as two beings. i Looking for that 
blessed hope and the glorious appearing 
of the great God, and our Savior Jesus 
Christ.' The title, Great God, is never 

1 T. Tim. i., 1. 
2 Titus, ii., 13. 



108 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

applied to Jesus Christ in the Scriptures, 
but frequently to the Father, and to him 
aloue." 1 

One would suppose that its genius 
could perform no finer feat. But in the 
face of the decisions of Lachmann, Tisch- 
endorf, Wetstein, Griesbach, and Tra- 
geles, 2 with that of Ellicottand Scrivener, 
the large testimony of learning to the re- 
taining of (9coc, and that in an y ca-e 
" pre-existence is signified in itfavspwdy" 
in the face of the internal evidence, and 
in the face of the evidence that, whatever 
the reading, it is an assertion of the Christ's 
Deity, the Unitarian Church sends out, as 
one of its missionary statements, the fol- 
lowing, on 1 Tim. iii., 16 : 

"This is perfectly intelligible; the 
word God is not found in the original 
manuscripts, but has been designedly or 
aceidently introduced into the text. It 
is a triumphant exclamation of the apos- 
tle — Great is the mystery of man's re- 
generation from sin to holiness by the 
gospel ; he who lived among us in hu- 

1 Tract, p. 2G. 
2 Hodge ; vol. i., p. 518. 



THE DIVINITY OF CUEIST. 109 

man form, the representative of the di- 
vine character, and the messenger of the 
divine will, having accomplished the pur- 
poses of his mission, was received np hy 
God into the hosom of his glory." l 

It thus is evident that (Jnitarianism is 
pantheistic on the one hand, hy making 
Paul a Pantheist, and calling him a Uni- 
tarian, and on the other, hy the adoption 
and use of principles of interpretation 
w T hich, at root, are essentially panthe- 
istic. Thus, also, we might find in the 
treatment of other apostolic teaching on 
this subject, the same spirit in interpre- 
tation, 2 yielding the same conclusion as 
to its tendency. 

Orthodoxy is free to assert that the 

1 Tract, p. 29. 

2 Cf. especially a tract published by the Unitarian 
Association; also, "The Apostle Paul a Unitarian," 
hy Samuel Barrett, and Dr. Peabody's tract (a re- 
publication from his " Lectures on Christian Doc- 
trine"), wherein he accuses Paul of leaving his mean- 
ing in Romans ix., 5, an open question, "since" he 
wrote " without stops," while Mr. Stetson continues 
to assert that Paul's "testimony could not have been 
erroneous or defect!, vc in any important respect" (p. 
3). Also Dewey, Outlining, Clarke, Eliot, and Bel- 
lows, in controversial works. 



HO METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

doctrine of the Deity of Jesus is not' en- 
tirely dependent on the mode of Scrip- 
ture interpretation, nor on Bible passages 
of undoubted authority. The Deity of 
our Lord is a fact, we think, too closely 
related to the religion of Jesus to thus 
subsist on any written word. 

We hold that it is clearly seen to be a 
necessity from any serious view of sin 
and the conditions which it has brought 
upon the whole race; and that salvation 
from moral evil through any real atone- 
ment for sin, is inconceivable without the 
postulate of our Lord's proper God- head. 

We are inclined to carry forward the 
investigation of Unitarian theology at 
this point, but since we shall find sin to 
be etherialized into a phantom, and the 
atonement made a mere fancy-sketch by 
this same philosophy, we shall be able, 
without again calling particular attention 
to this doctrine, to see how these neces- 
sities are met, being so easily satisfied 
with what is a possible growth only on 
Pantheistic soil. 



PROVIDENCE. HI 



CHAPTER III. 

PROVIDENCE. 

" My soul wept for joy that I could still pray to 
God; and the joy and the weeping, and the faith on 
Him were my prayer." Jean Paul. 

"Deus Naturam derigit, prout ejus leges univer- 
sales, non autem prout humanae naturae particulares 
leges exigunt, adeoque Deus non solius humani gene- 
ris, sed totius naturae rationem habet." Spinoza. 

" Lead me, Zeus and Destiny, whithersoever I am 
appointed to go. I will follow without wavering; 
even though I turn coward and shrink, I shall have 
to follow all the same." Epictetus. 

TTnitarianism gives no more shelter to 
the orthodox Providence than to the other 
dogmas of the Evangelical Church. From 
the most prosaic expounder of this theol- 
ogy to the most poetic of the liberalists, 
as representative of this fold, there is to 
he gathered the same protest; and, how- 
ever much the radicals may differ from 
the conservatives on other points, the 
communion here is quiet and deep. One 



112 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

may, therefore, as well begin with quota- 
tions from one end as from the other. 

Among the pages of published Unita- 
rianism which one has marked, passages 
from representative men will serve best to 
show the general tendency. 

Mr. Frothingham must represent the 
present-day- thought of the rationalistic 
wing; and all will agree that wmatever 
else is the matter with this famous preach- 
er, it is not indistinctness of vision or ut- 
terance. His voice seems as clear as his 
" sharply-cut features," and this trumpet 
has no uncertain sound. His rejoicing is 
in One snch as Mr. Emerson would have 
us think God is. He says that, " instead 
of a God to fly to, as devout persons con- 
ceive, we have a God who besets us be- 
hind and before, in life's inexorable con- 
ditions, who lays his hand upon us any 
moment in some adaptation of our moral 
necessities." 1 

One has no trouble in telling just whai 
Schelling's philosophy means at the men- 
tion of " world-soul" and " the supremacy 

1 Discourse on " The Scientific Aspect of Prayer." 
G. P. Putnam's Sons. 



PROVIDENCE. 113 

of spirit;" and we are delivered from 
speculating very much about the relation 
of these words to such words, and in fact 
to the general terminology of Pantheism. 
These all rise before us, when he talks 
about " an inward working of the soul 
by meditation upon the great adaptations 
that we form around us, whereby we are 
led to repose trustfully in the bosom of 
an enworkhd Deity." l Take a toiler on 
some rocky life-point, who has heard of 
"the faith once delivered to the saints," 
and has a heart-experience, which alone 
keeps him cheerfully at a duty that so 
often looks like a pledge of failure, and 
if, after some royal feast upon the victo- 
ries of his faith, one were to read to him 
the teachings of this minister of Jesus, 
that only a "faith based upon knowledge 
and upon loftiness of motive is a part of 
true religion," and this paragraph : 

" For the scientific man lives by faith 
in this sense: faith in the integrity of Na- 
ture, the omnipresence and inviolability 
of law, the equivalence of forces ; faith 

1 Discourse on "The Scientific Aspect of Prayer." 
G. P. Putnam's Sons. The italics are our own. 



114 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

that ' the universe was made at one cast,' 
that mechanics and mathematics are the 
same in all worlds, that sand grains and 
planets obey the same kind of impulse ; 
faith of a truly audacious and somewhat 
speculative sort/' 1 — while he would ac- 
cept much of it, he would probably feel, 
that, upon the whole, either Mr. Frothing- 
htam had not read the Bible at all, or that 
one or the other of them had misunder- 
stood it. So much for this wing. 

From the first word, wherein he declares 
that "piety is not a favorite word" with 
him, and that he does " not use it any 
oftener than" he "can help," unto the 
last, the address of Rev. John W. Chad- 
wick, " minister of the Second Unitarian 
Society in Brooklyn," " read before the 
National Conference of Unitarian and 
other Christian Churches, held at Sara- 
toga, September 12-15, 1876," is full of 
interest. Its title is the " Essential Piety 
of Modern Science," and its devotion to 
Taw as ruler, to the exclusion of all Prov- 
idence, is almost as earnestly avowed as 

1 Galaxy for October, 1876, p. 484, 



PROVIDENCE. 115 

is consistent with any sort of religious 
faith whatever. In fact, the tract savors 
of Pantheism before it touches Provi- 
dence. He says : 

" For what is piety ? It is man's sense 
of his relation to the informing life of 
everything that is — the All, the Infinite, 
for which we have, and need to have, no 
better name than God." 1 

Orthodoxy thinks that there is a cate- 
gory behind life ; and that, at all events, 
what is an accurate name for " life " 
would nqt define the All. Mr. Chadwick 
informs us that "the idea of antagonism 
between science and religion could never 
have arisen if piety could only have been 
true to its own genius, to its sense of uni- 
versal life and our relation thereto ;" 2 also 
that our religious thought had concen- 
trated its sense " around these abnormal 
objects ;" that " science diminished these," 
and, then as now, is occurring " the trans- 
ference of piety from the formal wor- 
ships, the cults of humanity to the do- 

1 " The Essential Piety of Modern Science," New 
York, Chas. P. Somerby, p. 6. 



Ibid., p. 



116 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

main of science and philosophy." * And 
all this is for the better ; as this is one of 
the phases of " the essential piety of Mod- 
ern Science." But Mr. Chadwick has 
given ns a definition of science, 2 and pro- 
ceeds upon such a conception of philosophy 
that we are to believe them very rigid and 
" formal." And to their confession of faith 
he has exultingly given up "the domain 
of piety." So that piety has escaped from 
one formalism, (and in what respect its con- 
dition was formal we have no hint) to an- 
other formalism, " substantial and indu- 
bitable." Providence, like " the fears of 
timid theologians," has gone forever. For 
what Mr. Chadwick calls science, confess- 
edly, has no Providence ; and Mr. Chad- 
wick informs the conference " that there 
is that iii modern scientific thought which 
directly fosters all those sentiments which 
are the life-blood of religion." 3 Cer- 
tainly, then, religion has no real Provi- 
dence, and, if this is so, we are ready to 

1 The Essential Piety of Modern Science, New 
York, Chas. P. Somerby, pp. 8, 9. 

2 Ibid., p. 8. 

3 Ibid, p. 12. 



PROVIDENCE. 117 

say, with the author, that "the essential 
piety of modern science is every day be- 
coming more conspicuous/' 1 

" What we call mercy is no after- 
thought of Deity ; it is the constitution 
of the universe. Other than law, there 
is no name given under heaven by which 
men can be saved from ignorance and 
helplessness. It is the everlasting faith- 
fulness. God's providence is universal. 
In man only is it specialized. And law 
is that which makes it possible for a man 
to foresee, and so prevent disaster ; fore- 
see and so prepare for victory. All spe- 
cial providence is human, and the condi- 
tion of its ever- widening development is 
the invariability of law. 

"But because the special providence is 
human it is not, therefore, any less di- 
vine. God's arm is not shortened that he 
can not save, because there is man here 
at this hither end of his almighty finger- 
tip. There is not less of the infinite life 
in our humanity than in the lower forms 
of nature ; nay, but infinitely more. That 

1 The Essential Piety of Modern Science, New 
York, Chas. P. Somerby, p. 11. 



118 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

word of Jesus, ' I and my father are one,' 
was not the announcement of a solitary ex- 
ception, but of a constant, an invariable 
unity. Had he but known it, the man 
Judas also could have said it. The equa- 
tor is an ideal line, say the geographers. 
The line between the human and divine 
is not so much as that. Or if it is — 

'Draw, if thou canst, the mystic line 
Eightly severing His from thine, 
Which is human, which divine.' " l 

Objections may be urged that such con- 
fessions of Pantheism do not come from 
the representative men of this body, and 
that, being used as they are in this con- 
nection, the position of the church suffers 
by misrepresentation. 

Let us go again to one of the great 
names of this religious body — the son of 
Levi Hedge ; to him, who, in 1857, 
brought culture, genius, and enthusiasm 
to the chair of Ecclesiastical History at 
Cambridge; who, as author, translator, or- 
ator, editor of the Christian Examiner, 
and as contributor to the highest of oui 

1 The Essential Piety of Modern Science, New 
York, Chas. P. Somerby, pp. 24, 25. 



PROVIDENCE. 119 

literary journals, has not only had an im- 
portant influence on the religious thought 
of his own denomination, but has been a 
brilliant factor in American literature, 
and is now one of the forces of scholar- 
ship through his constant literary activity, 
as well as by his relation to Harvard Col- 
lege. We shall escape the charge of un- 
fairness by thus looking at the latest of 
the important Unitarian utterances, as also 
that of over-stating any doctrine by catch- 
quotation from this large number of es- 
says, as use shall be made of but one, 
which is none the less suited to our pur- 
pose, because its philosophy underlies the 
volume. 

We meet, at once, this statement : " the 
end of all study is the discovery of law, 
that is, of spirit, that is, of Deity in the 
facts studied." 1 That this is ideally true, 
is, upon the first sight, granted, and the 
Idealism in which we see it as consistent 
with universal fact fully justifies the fol- 
lowing well-defined positions of the es- 
say on the nature and grasp which law 

1 Ways of the Spirit; Essay, " The Way of His- 
tory," p. 7. 



120 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

has upon life and things to the exclusion 
of free agency. It may seem to our 
readers, as it does to us, that this, after 
all, is the shortest cut to Pantheism; a 
negation, of Providence, hy the negation 
of free agency in making history. In- 
deed, it is our experience — that here a 
most clearly marked route along these 
facts and assumptions has been made. 

Dr. Hedge proceeds: "Wc read his- 
tory to little purpose, if we read it only 
as a record of facts, and see in it no de- 
monstration of Divine method. The facts 
themselves are not truly apprehended 
unless we see them in the light of some 
principle or law which they illustrate." l 

Method, then, is the goal, not a discov- 
ery of what this Divine is, in His attributes, 
and in the " habitation of His throne"; 
but, as illustrative of these, the method is 

l Ways of the Spirit; Essay, "The Way of His- 
tory," p. 8. It ought to be noticed in this connec- 
tion, that the human mind does not skip so important 
a step in growth as lies between this utterance and 
the Jess objectionable, but, of course, earlier writings 
of Dr. Hedge, which fact will appear by taking, for 
example, the Idealist's point of view in the Christian 
Examiner, July, 1866, first article. 



PROVIDENCE. 121 

all. We are to get significance from facts 
" in the light of some principle or law 
which they illustrate." Whence this in- 
terpretive illumination, and how shall we 
find the significance of the principle? 
Leaving these questions, let us find the 
meaning of the facts of "the Battle of 
Actium," in Roman history. Dr. Hedge 
has cited it as an example. 1 

" I read that the forces of Octavius 
met those of Antonius in the Ambracian 
Gulf, and obtained a signal victory over 
them. What signifies that fact to me ? 
What do I know of Roman history, if 
all I gather from it is that Octavius was 
the better general, or the luckier man of 
the two ? The real fact has escaped me, 
if I fail to perceive its historic import. 
It was not valor nor luck, but historic 
necessity, that triumphed in that en- 
counter. It was necessary that democ- 
racy should replace aristocratic oligarchy, 
like that of republican Rome. It was 
necessary that democratic anarchy should 
be replaced by an imperial head. Octa- 
vius represents in that conflict the Latin 

1 Ways of the Spirit; Essay, "The Way of His- 
tory," p. 8. 



122 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

or popular element in Roman history. 
Antonius represents the Sabine patrician. 
The internal history of the Roman Re- 
public, and especially that of the pre- 
vious century, had been a conflict of these 
two elements, the former seeking to dis- 
engage itself from the latter. The Bat- 
tle of Aetium was the consummation of 
that struggle. With the triumph of Oc- 
tavius — qui cuncta discordus cimlibus fessa 
nomine principis sub imperium accepit 1 — de- 
mocracy came to a head, Latin civility 
came to maturity, and in its turn became 
the matrix of its successor in empire, — 
the Christian Church." 

We think that not only is Dr. Hedge 
right in saying, "An objection may be 
raised against the doctrine of historic 
necessity, on the score of human free- 
will," but that his treatment of the ob- 
jection is, from a Scriptural and scientific 
point of view, singularly fallacious ; while, 
from a Pantheistic point of view, it is 
singularly clear and faithful. For, to 
the questioner, he says: "The conduct 
of history lies in the hands of human 

1 Tacitus. 



PROVIDENCE. 123 

free agents. A glance at the course of 
events shows us that those revolutions 
which have furnished the materials ami 
given the direction to history, have been 
the work of individuals following the im- 
pulse of their own wills. How, then, can 
we affirm them to he the operation of a 
law? or how can history, conducted by 
free will, be a necessary process? If one 
looks at the matter a priori, it seems a pri- 
ori improbable that the destinies of hu- 
manity should be committed to individ- 
ual caprice, or that able and designing men 
should shape the world according to 
their whim. But what is the fact? 
Eree agency acts under given conditions, 
and those conditions are contained in the 
natural order of things. There is no 
more escape from that order in the moral 
w 7 orld than in the physical. All the 
motions on the earth's surface, however 
arbitrary and contrary one to another, 
obey the parent motion of the earth, and 
are swept along in the spheral march. 
So all possible movements of the human 
will are comprehended in the providen- 
tial sweep of the parent will which 



124 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

works in each. The contradiction be- 
tween freedom and necessity, so perplex- 
ing in the sphere of private life, disap- 
pears in the large dynamic of history. 
There freedom and necessity are seen to 
be different factors of one movement, — 
freedom the human, necessity the divine. 
The highest freedom is the strongest ne- 
cessity, as, in chemistry, those affinities 
which are termed elective are precisely 
the most determined. Says Kant : 
" Whatever notion, in a metaphysical 
point of view, we may form to ourselves 
of the freedom of the will, its manifesta- 
tion — i. e., human actions — like every 
other natural event, is determined by 
general laws of Nature." 1 

To the eye of sense, "the river wind- 
eth at its own sweet will," bat reflection 
knows that the valley through which it 
winds has been scooped by the action of 
unchangeable laws; and, in human life, 
all freedom that succeeds is free occu- 
pation of appointed paths. The course 

1 Zur Philosophic der Geschichte; Idee zu einer 
Allgemeinen Geschichte in Weltbiirgerlichen. Ab- 
sicht. 



PROVIDENCE. 125 

of destiny is the providential channel in 
which human freedom elects to rim. 
Accordingly, the great men of history — 
the history-makers — are the " providen- 
tial men;" they are those, in the lan- 
guage of Hegel, "whose private pur- 
poses contain the substance of that which 
is willed by the spirit of the world." 1 
They may not be aware of their provi- 
dential function ; they may not contem- 
plate all the results they are used to 
effect ; the ulterior consequences of their 
free action may not come within the 
scope of their design : the consequences 
follow none the less." 2 

Dr. Hedge is beyond criticism in the 
expression of his thoughts, and we can 
only deal with the thought as we get it. 
lie has such an admirable style, that one 
can not mistake what he means, and it is 
so forceful that his reader is left with an 
abiding impression that he means just 
what he says. That this is a denial of 
Providence, in any thoroughly safe view 
of the thing so denominated, is, there- 

1 Philosophie der Gesehichte. 

2 Ways of the Spirit, p. 11. 



126 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

fore, evident. It is the doctrine stated and 
disproved by a Unitarian theologian, and 
that, with a wealth of illustration and his- 
toric allusion borne along on his clear 
Idealism like waves of starlight on amoun- 
tain stream. It is more — the preaching 
of Pantheism, and the binding of the bur- 
den of the discourse to his hearer by one of 
the most consistent sayings of a better- 
known Pantheist than even the illus- 
trious speaker himself. His would-be 
apology to the human consciousness for 
this treatment he has given to free 
agency is a beautiful plea for the atten- 
tion while he wrests liberty from the 
human will. We must accept his meta- 
phors and similes, whether we accept his 
theology or not ; and an illustration 
must be judged of as suited to its work, 
as a vehicle, and not as a dogma. His use 
of "the course of destiny," and " provi- 
dential channel," and "human freedom," 
is a brilliant throw of the dice, but of a 
"dice loaded" with a denial of Provi- 
dence. 

To think of " human freedom," " elect- 
ing" "to run" into such prepared val- 



PROVIDENCE. 127 

leys as Dr. Hedge finds before every 
great movement in history, is a task 
equaled only by attempting to conceive 
the idea of " the free occupation of ap- 
pointed paths." It is not our task to dis- 
cuss the idea of free agency in particular ; 
but, if it were, we should not be able to 
find, in the literature of fatalism, such 
other accounts of fatalistic liberty, and 
of freedom conditioned into necessity; 
nor would we be able to discover another 
such interesting study as the harmoniza- 
tion of such antagonistic passages as these : 
" Liberty is not an original but an acquired 
possession ; not an accident, but a product, 
— the product of reflection, of legislation, 
of scientific adjustment; in a word, the 
product of the State." 1 " Come, Longo- 
bards and Franks, from the depths of the 
Odenwald and Black Forest! — come, 
pour your fresh life into withered hu- 
manity ; revive the perished world or 
bury it ! " 2 

The entire essay seems to be an indi- 
rect effort (and it is, indeed, a successful 

1 Ways of the Spirit, p. 20. 
'-Ibid., p. 31. 



128 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

one) to prove that a denial of Providence 
leads to Pantheism. One can hardly rise 
from fliis well-studied effort, without run- 
ning over a full synopsis of the argument 
lying like a river-bed underneath its bur- 
den. 

Deprive God of His holiness, and His 
personal character, as an object of human 
worship, is gone ; and a denial of His 
providence, if any idea is attached to the 
word, is always a denial of His. holiness. 
For, if God, the Omnipotent, be holy, 
then, indeed, is the universe rolling in a 
holy orbit, to a holy purpose. Surely, 
also, when sinful free agency lifts up its 
arms against 'it, it disturbs the crystalliz- 
ing idea ; and, as surely as God is holy, 
and His providence can counteract such 
results, He, by His providence, will main- 
tain the integrity of His holy purpose. 

Now when the " eternal, not ourselves, 
that makes for righteousness " does not 
make for righteousness ; and when thus 
the very indefinite terminology of Ideal- 
ism fails to give any idea of Him, we 
take the next step into the " higher Pan- 
theism " (which is not far from the " low^er 
Pantheism "), and we ask, if He is not " the 



PROVIDENCE. 129 

eternal, not ourselves, that makes for 
righteousness," what is He ? " The stream 
of tendency by which all things fulfill 
the law of their being." But '■ tendency" 
to what ? Certainly to nothing but Him- 
self. So that not above nor beneath, but 
in everything and of everything is " the 
eternal, not ourselves, that makes for 
righteousness," while wickedness sits on 
thrones, sin curses, and the tears flow. 
What mercy is it that does not reach the 
race of men ? What but an idea of a 
God is an attribute like Faithfulness, 
Omnipotence, Love, or Omniscience, when 
no human worship finds it? Surely ex- 
tremes meet. God's law is always im- 
personal, if this rationalistic account of 
Him, through " His Method," be true ; 
and Pantheism and Transcendentalism 
are at one in a universe controlled by 
impersonal law ; where, instead of God's 
method, we have the method of God. 

Having heard what the present-day 
Unitarian has to say about Providence, 
and having seen his treatment of this 
doctrine founded on an active Transcen- 
dentalism, as well as the obvious fact 



130 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

that it is possible only on Pantheistic 
grounds — in fact, being brought here by 
TJnitarianism, we are ready to see what 
sort of providence, if any, God has. 

With Mr. Frothingham, we say: "Mr. 
Emerson, we find ourselves continually 
appealing to him as the tinest interpreter 
of the transcendental movement." l And 
Mr. Emerson must state the matter in 
his own words, while others interpose. 
In his eye man stands to receive his edu- 
cation from out of eternity, and if the 
old have nothing else to give, " As soon 
as he needs a new object suddenly he be- 
holds it." 2 He might adopt the whole 
song of John Burroughs' — ""Waiting:" 

"Serene I fold my hands and wait, 
Nor care for wind, nor tide nor sea; 

I rave no more 'gainst time or fate, 
For lo! my own shall come to me. 

I stay my haste, I make delays ! 

For what avails this eager pace ? 
I stand amid the eternal ways, 

And what is mine shall know my face. 

What matter if I stand alone? 
I wait with joy the coming years. 

1 Transcendentalism in New England, p. 142. 

2 Works, vol. i, p. 544. 



PROVIDENCE. 131 

My heart shall reap where it has sown, 
And garner up its fruit of tears. 

The waters know their own and draw 

The brook that springs in yonder heights; 

So flows the good with equal law 
Unto the soul of pure delights. 

Yon floweret nodding in the wind 

Is ready plighted to the bee ; 
And, maiden, why that look unkind? 

For lo ! thy lover seeketh thee. 

The stars come nightly to the sky, 

The tidal wave unto the sea ; 
Nor time, nor space, nor deep, nor high, 

Can keep my own away from me." l 

Well, indeed, has Mr. Joel Benton said 
that this breathes a sentiment which is 
" born of the same Transcendental qual- 
ity as that which animates Mr. Wasson's 
rare lyric of 'All's "Well,' though it is 
molded in a quite different form, and can 
stand bravely alone." It is clear that 
both are so closely united to the spirit of 
Idealism as it appeared in 1842, that with 
such song-power and so line imagination 
as belong to either the author of " Wake- 

1 Scribner T s Monthly, Jan., 1877, In which the au- 
thor of the article from which this is copied makes 
some very appreciative criticism of Mr. Emerson and 
other Transcendental ists, p. 340. 



132 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

Eobin " or that of " The Plover," one 
might paraphrase Emerson, Thoreau, or 
Alcott, into these verses. Any one at 
all familiar with either of these, and es- 
pecially with the first, who is certainly 
the greatest, as well as the most repre- 
sentative of the three, will fall to quot- 
ing such passages as these, whose number 
is legion : 

"A man who is united with his thought 
conceives magnificently of himself. He 
is conscious of a universal success, even 
though bought by uniform particular 
failures." l 

" My friends have come to me un- 
sought. The great God gave them to 
me." 2 

" Throb thine with nature's throbbing breast, 
And all is clear f om East to West. 
Spirit that lurks each form within 
Beckons to spirit of its kin ; 
Self-kindled every atom glows 
And hints the future which it owes;' 3 

1 Vol. i., Works, Essay on Friendship, p. 320. 

2 Ibid, pp. 318, 319. 

3 Prologue to Essay on Nature, vol. i., p. 503. This 
is from one of the Sacred Books of Modern Tran- 



PROVIDENCE. 133 

And, then, " the face of ' this ' eternal 
nature teaches " us a " lesson/' " We 
miscreate over our own evils." " Our 
life might be much easier and simple 
than we make it." " We interfere with 
the optimism of nature ; for, whenever 
we get the vantage ground of the past, 
or of a wiser mind in the present, we are 
able to discern that we are begirt with 
laws which execute themselves." 

So " nature would not have us fret and 
fume." 

" There is a soul at the center of na- 
ture, and over the will of every man, 
so that none of us can wrong the uni- 
verse." " The whole course of things 
goes to teach us faith ; we need only obey." 

Looking especially at this " rare lyric," 
"All 's Well ;" one reads Wasson, 

" Thy painter, Fancy, hath not force, 
To show how sweet it is to be," 

scendentalism, and this from the Sacred Book of An- 
cient Transcendentalism — The Prem Sagar. 
" Whatever man's destiny may be, 
His mind is changed accordingly; 
"With his heart in union blends, 
And thus come God's appointed ends." 

Alger's Poetry of the Orient. 



134 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

and sees Emerson make " badness " look 
bad, because " absolute badness is abso- 
lute death" — that is, non-being. 

One's being is all. Mr. Emerson told 
the divinity students — " That is always 
best which gives me to myself." " That 
which shows God out of me makes me a 
wart and a wen. There is no longer any 
necessary reason for my being." " Virtue 
consists in a perpetual substitution of be- 
ing for seeming, and with sublime pro- 
priety God is described as saying, I AM." 
"The lesson which these observations 
convey is, Be and not seem." And thus 
to the end, the identity of sight and point 
of view is evident, where Transcenden- 
talism overleaps itself, and becomes tan- 
gible in its Pantheism, and which 1 Mr. 

1 Take this with Mr. Cranch's poetic treatment 
of what is truly an important question: "Tell me, 
brothers, what are we?" (quoted by Mr. Frothing- 
ham, p. 146) and we are almost, if not quite, ready to 
sit " in the gazelle groves near Benares," under the 
ministrations of Sakya Muni, until we shall joyfully 
pass from out the Sansara into the Nirvana. This . 
is, in fact, the very sweetest expression of Buddhism 
we know of this side of Asia. It certainly possesses 
the full- orbed dogma. 

" If the special character of this deliverance be in- 



PROVIDENCE. 135 

Wasson lias put into the following 
form : 

"All mine is thine, the sky-soul saith; 
The wealth I am must those become; 
Eieher and richer, breath by breath, 
Immortal gain, immortal room. 
And since all his 
Mine also is, 
Life's gift outruns my fancies far, 
And drowns the dream 
In larger stream, 
As morning drinks the morning-star." 

vestigated, we find it summed up in the word Nir- 
vana — 'extinction,' 'blowing out.' Such was the 
supreme felicity of the Buddha; such the goal to 
which he ever pointed the aspirations of his follow- 
ers. It was formerly disputed whether more is 
meant by the expression Nirvana than ' eternal quiet- 
ude.' unbroken sleep,' 'impenetrable apathy,' but the 
oldest literature of Buddhism will scarcely suffer us 
to doubt that Gautama intended by it nothing short 
of absolute 'annihilation,' the destruction of all ele- 
ments which constitute existence." (Hard wick, 
Christ and Other Masters, pt. ii., p. 60.) 

This, of course, is the blossom of Transcendental- 
ism; and if Idealism, "as it appears in 1842," has, in 
this note of its music, struck any sound at all, it is 
the resultant of such a spiritual philosophy as ani- 
mates the Broad Church and Unitarian Theology in 
our day. Pantheism once, Pantheism forever ; and 
the denial of our Lord's proper divinity, the denial 
of the miraculous and the supernatural, the burial 



136 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

Poor Providence has been lost long 
ago in all this explanatory array of rec- 
ord. No room for such an existence in 
this life, and one looks into the future, 
but through the leus of Transcendental- 
ism, arranged with reference to the tube 
of this law — a whole can not be different 
from the sum of all its parts — and there 
is no Providence there. Cranch, the 

of Providence beneath law, and that of the Holy 
Ghost as a Person, are possible only on such a sys- 
tem of world principles, while the literature will be, 
as it ever has been (see concluding chapter), identi- 
cal with that of the Buddhist and Brahminical schools. 

It will be noticed that there are two sides to this 
idea so felicitously thrown into verse by Mr. Cranch. 
There is, one may claim, an apotheosis of man into 
collective humanity or into God, If such be granted 
as the case, it is a new outburst of the oldest princi- 
ple of Brahminism : 

"You will not," continues the Brahmin speaker in 
the dialogue, "accept the term void as an adequate 
description of the mysterious nature of the soul, 
but . . . you will clearly apprehend soul (in the 
final state) to be unseen and ungrasped being, 
thought, knowledge, and joy, no other than very 
God." (Williams, Christianity and Hinduism, quoted 
by Dr. Mozeley, Miracles, pp. 92, 284.) 



PROVIDENCE. 137 

most graceful poet of Transcendentalism, 
gives poetic expression to this fact : 

" We, like parted drops of rain, 
Swelling till they melt and run, 
Shall he all absorbed again, 
Melting, flowing. into one." 1 

If one bemoans himself of the loss, 
Mr. Emerson is the comforter at the sad- 
ness, and tells what each of us can he, 
and ought to be, without it. This must 
have been, to use his phraseology, either 
" the god of tradition " or u the God of 
rhetoric" (and why one is better entitled 
to the capital we do not know), or both, 
for he says : " When we have broken our 

lil Knowing," Whittier's Songs of Three Centuries: 
This is Transcendentalism, the soul of the Unitarian 
theology, nearly nineteen centuries after Christ; and 
the following is Transcendentalism, an almost date- 
less period before Christ, in which, if we are in spirit 
with this latest song, our more devoted feelings will 
find expression: 

" Let us in silent adoration yearn 
After the God-head — True Sun — evermore; 
"Who all illumes, who creates all o'er, 
From whom we came, to whom all must return; 
"Whom we invoke to guide our minds and feet 
In our slow progress towards his holy seat." 

Alger's Poetry of the Orient. 



138 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

god of tradition, and ceased from our God 
of rhetoric, then may God fire the heart 
with his presence." 1 Consolingly and in 
an admonitory, as well as hortatory tone, 
he continues : 

"It inspires in man an infallible trust. 
He has not the conviction, but the sight, 
that the best is the true, and may in that 
thought easily dismiss all particular un- 
certainties and fears, and adjourn to the 
sure revelation of time, the solution of 
his private riddles. He is sure that his 
welfare is dear to the heart of being. In 
the presence of law to his mind, he is 
overflowed with a reliance so universal, 
that it sweeps away all cherished hopes and 
the most stable projects of mortal condition 
in its flood. He believes that he can not 
escape from his good. The things that 
are really for thee gravitate to thee. You 
are running to seek your friend. Let 
your feet run, but your mind need not. 
If you do not find him, will you not ac- 
quiesce that it is best you should not find 
him ? for there is a power, which, as it is 
in you, is in him also, and could, there- 

1 Essay, "The Oversoul," p. 369, vol. i- 



PROVIDENCE. 139 

fore, very well bring you together, if it 
were for the best. You are preparing 
with eagerness to go and render a ser- 
vice to which your talent and your taste 
invite you, the love of men aud the hope 
of fame. Has it not occurred to you that 
you have no right to go, unless you are 
equally willing to be prevented from go- 
ing? O, believe, as thou livest, that 
every sound that is spoken over the round 
world, which thou oughtest to hear, will 
vibrate on thine ear ! Every proverb, 
eveiy book, every by-word that belongs to 
thee for aid or comfort, shall surely come 
home through open or winding passages. 
Every friend whom not thy fantastic will, 
but the great and tender heart in thee 
craveth, shall lock thee in his embrace. 
And this, because the heart in thee is the 
heart of all; not a valve, not a wall, not 
an intersection is there anywhere in na- 
ture, but one blood rolls uninterruptedly 
an endless circulation through all men, 
as the water of the globe is all one sea, 
and, truly seen, its tide is one." 1 

Jesus, who, at times, is very high in 

1 Vol. i, pp. 369, 370. 



140 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

Mr. Emerson's estimation, 1 would have 
us believe that even the hairs of our heads 
are numbered ; that no sparrow falls to 
the ground unnoticed ; and that any spar- 
row is not only noticed, but that a divine ac- 
count is made of it. 2 Mr. Emerson would 
say, yes, to all this, leaving such a long- 
drawn interrogation-point thereafter, that, 
if we accept what he has given, the dark- 
est night of our grief is unillumined by a 
single such thought; though some angel, 
like that one at the bush, ought, perhaps, 
to remark the identity of Manhood and 
God-head, when man is true to himself, 
and that with God, as with a real man, it 
is true: 

" "Work of his hand 
He ne'er commends or grieves; 
Pleads for itself the fact ; 
As unrepenting nature leaves 
Her every act." 3 

Mr. Emerson, long ago, graduated from 
the primary instruction of Schleiermacher, 
whereat faith in religion means faith in a 

1 Vol. i, pp. 286, 301, 297, 247, 470, 473, 371, 544, 
542. • 

2 Matt, x., 29. 

3 Vol. i., p. 460. 



PROVIDENCE. 141 

" feeling of dependence upon the Abso- 
lute; " x and he has so far forgotten this 
early training that he can not think of 
the future of religion as essentially dif- 
ferent from that of science. 2 Indeed, his 
preaching is not reliance on the Infinite, 
but self-reliance. To quote proof of this 
would be to quote all he has written. 
Now, how is this possible, one would say, 
and the answer would most assurantly 
attempt to satisfy us with Pantheism. If 
reliance on self is enough, then there is, 
so far as this connection is concerned, no 
need of God. Certainly, too, God is not, 
if He be a mere accident or unnecessary. 
Emerson stops us here before we have 
time to mention that Pantheism is the 
only shore possible, unless it be Atheism, 
and says : 

1 Thompson, Theolg of Christ, p. 118. 

2 He says, in his concluding address to the Divinity 
students : li I look for the new teacher that shall follow 
so far these shining laws, that he shall see them come 
full circle, shall see their rounding and complete grace, 
shall see the world to be the mirror of the soul, shall 
see the identity of the law of gravitation with purity 
of heart, and shall show that the Ought, that Duty is 
one thing with Science, with Beauty and with Joy.' 
Vol. i, p. 81. 



142 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

" Ineffable is the union of man and 
God in every act of the soul. The sim- 
plest person, who in his integrity wor- 
ships God, becomes God ; yet for ever 
and ever the influx pf this better and 
universal self is new and unsearchable." 1 

" The soul gives itself, alone, original, 
and pure, to the Lonely, Original, and 
Pure, who, on that condition, gladly in- 
habits, leads, and speaks through it. 
Then is it glad, young, and nimble. It is 
not wise, but it sees through all things. 
It is not called religious, but it is inno- 
cent. It calls the light its own, and feels 
that the grass grows and the stone falls 
by a law inferior to, and dependent on. 
its nature. Behold, it saith, I am born 
into the great, the universal mind. I, the 
imperfect, adore my own Perfect. I am 
somehow receptive of the great soul, and 
thereby I do overlook the sun and the 
stars, and feel them to be the fair acci- 
dents and effects which change and pass. 
More and more the surges of everlasting 
nature enter into me, and I become pub- 
lic and human in my regards and actions. 

1 Vol. i, page 269. 



PROVIDENCE. 143 

So come I to live in thoughts, and act 
with energies, which are immortal." 1 

Because of these facts, what conlcl be 
more ridiculous than prayer. Yet, 
strangely, Mr. Emerson would have us 
say, it is something. It is not what we 
thought it was, no more than God is 
what He seems to be, and especially to us, 
yet, like God, the word prayer has a sig- 
nificance. It is to his mind in sublime 
propriety that God should be described 
as I am, 2 and just as properly prayer may 
be said to be. 

He says : " Prayer looks abroad and asks 
for some foreign addition to come through 
some foreign virtue, and loses itself in 
endless mazes of natural and supernatu- 
ral, and mediatorial and miraculous. 
Prayer that craves a particular commod- 
ity — anything less than all good — is vic- 
ious. Prayer is the contemplation of the 
facts of life from the highest point of 
view. It is the soliloquy of a beholding 
and jubilant soul. It is the spirit of God 
pronouncing his works good. But prayer 

iVol. i, p. 371. 
2 Vol. i, p. 291. 



144 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

as a means to effect a private end is mean- 
ness and theft." 1 

And while Emerson cries, "Insist on 
yourself," 2 Jesus says : " Believe on me ;" 
and as Jesus instructs His disciple how to 
pray, Emerson informs us that "prayers 
are a disease of the will." 3 One is the 
wail of Pantheism through a silver trum- 
pet; the other is the music of Heaven 
from out the lips of Deity. 

E"ow, to prove this to be Transcendent- 
alism or Pantheism, would he simply to 
re-state it; yet one wonders how the as- 
cent was made. Mr. Emerson has kindly 
given us so much of his mental biography 
that he who runs may read. Here is not 
an explanation of the way ; but see ! 
there goes Mr. Emerson out of Unitarian 
philosophy, by way of Idealism, as it ap- 
peared in 1842, into Pantheism! 

" The soul is the perceiver and revealer 
of truth. We know truth when we see 
it, let skeptic and scoffer say what they 

1 Vol. i., pp. 256, 257. 

2 Ibid., p. 259. 

3 Ibid., p. 257. 



PROVIDENCE. 145 

choose. Foolish people ask you, when 
you have spoken what they do not wish 
to hear, ' How do you know it is truth, 
and not an error of your own V We know 
truth when we see it, from opinion, as we 
know when Ave are awake that we are 
awake. It was a grand sentence of Eman- 
uel Swedenborg, which would alone indi- 
cate the greatness of that man's percep- 
tion, — ' It is no proof of a man's under- 
standing to be able to contirm whatever 
he pleases ; but to be able to discern that 
what is true is true, and that what is false 
is false, this is the mark and character of 
intelligence.' In the book I read, the 
good thought returns to me, as every 
truth will, the image of the whole soul. 
To the bad thought which I find in it, 
the same soul becomes a discerning, sepa- 
rating sword, and lops it away. We are 
wiser than we know. If we will not in- 
terfere with our thought, but will act en- 
tirely, or see how the thing stands in God, 
we know the particular tiling, and every- 
thing, and every man. For the Maker 
of all things and all persons stands be- 



146 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

hind us, and casts his dread omniscience 
through us over things." l 

, . 1 Vol. i., p. 363. 

Mr. Frothingham's philosophy gets poetical in his 
prayers, Mr. Stedman informs us; and one wonders 
if the " ask and receive" of Jesus has ever been read 
to the Masonic Hall congregation. Mr. Stedman 
says, that " in prayer the speaker's voice rises in an 
invocation to the Supreme Source of Law and Good- 
ness — an address, which is an aspiration, a poem of 
reverence, worship, and acknowledgment, but never, 
by any chance, a petition to a listening Euler for 
gifts, protection, or other personal and special bene- 
fits." Galaxy, October, 1876. See the " address " there 
given, as a specimen. 



PA.RT II. 

THE ATONEMENT. 



" If John was perfect, why are you and I alive ? As long as any 
man exists, there is some need of him ; let him fight for his own. 

— It. W. Emerson. 

" SpdaavTi Ttadelv 
rpt.yepuv /nvdor rdde (hovel." 

— JESCHYLUS. 

" irpiv iraaav juv7jar?jpag vTreprJacnqv cnroTlciat." 

" The Gods themselves, in virtve, honor, strength, 
Excelling thee, may yet be mollified; 
For they, when mortals have transgressed or failed 
To do aright, by sacrifice and prayer, 
Libations, and burnt offerings, may be soothed. 
Prayers are the daughters of immortal Jove ; 
But halt and wrinkled, and of feeble sight. 
They plod in Atc"s track ; while Me, strong 
And swift of foot, outstrips their laggard pace, 
And, dealing woe to man, o^cr all the earth 
Before them flies : they, following, heal her wounds. 
Him who with honor vielcomes their approach, 
They greatly aid, and hear him when he prays. 
But who rejects and sternly casts them off, 
To Saturn's son they go, and make their prayer, 
That Ate may pursue him, and that he. 
By her chastised, may for his guilt atone. 
Then to the daughters of immortal Jove, 
Do thou, Achilles, show the like respect, 
That many another brave man's heart hath swayed.'''' 

—Homer. 



PART II. 



CHAPTER I. 

A GENERAL STATEMENT. 

" Nun was du, Herr, erduldet, ist alles meine Last, 
Ich hab' es selbst verschuldet, was du getragen hast." 

Paul Gerharlt. 

" To be a finite being is no crime, and to be the in- 
finite is not to be a creditor. As man was not con- 
sulted, he does not find himself a party in a bargain, 
but a child in the household of Love. Reconciliation, 
therefore, is not the consequence of paying a debt, 
or procuring atonement for an injury, but an organic 
process of the human life." John Weiss. 

"The divine bards are the friends of my virtue, 
of my intellect, of my strength. They admonish me 
that the gleams which flash across my mind are not 
mine, but God's; that they had the like, and were not 
disobedient to the heavenly vision. So I love them. 
Noble provocations go out from them, inviting me to 
resist evil; to subdue the world; and to Be. And 
thus by his holy thoughts, Jesus serves us, and thus 
only." R. W. Emerson. 



The atonement is a fact, which, if it ex- 

•rgan: 
(149) 



ist, has such an intimate and organic re- 



150 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

lationship to God's government and hu- 
man happiness as that it would appear 
impossible to hide it under a false inter- 
pretation of scripture, or to make it a 
negation by the agencies of metaphor 
and simile. Such, however, is the uni- 
versal infusion of an Idealism which has 
either formulated itself in, or in any theo- 
logical analysis reduces to Unitarianism, 
that no doctrine is so despoiled of its 
simple grandeur, nor is any dogma, upon 
which, confessedly, so much hangs, made 
so utterly incapable of effort or result. 

It ought to be noted as one of the most 
evident results of observation, that the 
philosophy which has all along animat- 
ed the Broad Church party, and which 
glows in the strong appeals of the self- 
termed Liberal Schools, expressing itself 
with no uncertain sound in the " Essays 
and Reviews " — is as Unitarian in its 
God-head, in fact, as are the sermons of 
Theodore Parker in confession. 1 

It may also be said, that, since any 
philosophy, which, either by its own 

1 See Dr. Pope's excellent Introduction to Winer's 
Confessions of Christendom, p. LXXI. 



THE ATONEMENT. 151 

confession or with a denial of any inten- 
tion to annul its own protest?, leaves us 
with what is no more than an abstraction, 
by dethroning Jesus Christ, most be ade- 
quate to the performance of its own feats : 
and, since the feats are such as we have 
noted, it is perfectly able to make such a 
disposition of the facts of the atonement, 
to secure ends which require the God- 
man, as renders it either impotent or 
impossible. It is not much of a task to 
make His acts valueless, and even ordin- 
ary, when the strongest expressions of His 
life are treated with such principles. It 
His life, as He saw it, was an illusion, 
much more is its divinest transactions 
susceptible of being classed with fancy's 
sketches and the poems of a highly imag- 
inative race. Realism, has at least some 
demands, but such a philosophy urges 
only in vain, as Idealism seizes this stu- 
penduous fact to etherealize it into a 
myth, or transform it into a dream. Thus 
it is that the richness of the forces em- 
bodied in the doctrine of the atonement 
and its results, has been enough to explain 



152 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

the large literature of all sorts concerning 
it. 

Looking into these products, which 
oftentimes hint the most dogmatic ex- 
pressions of this school of philosophy, as 
well as by their terminology suggest an 
inward relationship to the Higher Pan- 
theism, one is most interested in the nu- 
merous active protests which are given, 
and the constant denial, which, by such 
means, is made, of any intention to do 
harm. This large-souled philanthropy 
seems to have caught the spirit of the 
time, at least in this, that a full adver-' 
tisement is to he made. Indeed, what is 
manly ignorance often disgraces itself by 
such an assumption of authority as defies 
respect, and defeats its own efforts. Pas- 
sages without number might be quoted, 
which, by their incongruity, have raised 
many a smile from the sober readers of 
this theology. Not more sensible is one of 
this incongruity when Mr. Mathew Arnold 
tries to help the Infinite Personality out 
of the hands of had writers of dogma, or 
when taking this philosophy into this 
field again, where its armor shines with 



THE ATONEMENT. 153 

ten -fold splendor, demurely says, be is 
trying to save religion from the clutches 
of Mr. Bradlaugh by taking it out of the 
bands of the Bishop of Gloucester and 
Bristol — than when Dr. Hedge talks of 
"progress" in editing the "Essays and 
Reviews," or when Mr. Haweis and Mr. 
Brooke preach about the " nineteenth 
century," and the Dean of Westminister 
and Dr. Farrar elaborately explain the 
true sacrifice of Christ and eternal dam- 
nation. So close does all this protesting 
come to excess, that we can only think 
of a clown playing tricks while he cuts 
the windpipes of his admirers. 

We take it, that while this general 
statement of facts may be inadequate on 
other grounds, that there is such a rela- 
tionship between the Broad Church, the 
Unitarian Church, and Mr. Arnold's 
rather unsuccessful band of Pantheolo- 
gists, as needs no proof. The fraternity, 
as a fact, of this literature is full and free ; 
and while the late volumes of sermons 
are from another point of view, they seem 
none the less exposed to the criticism 
which is to be urged against the books of 



154 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

Mathew Arnold — namely, they are born 
of a bad philosophy, ignorance of the sub- 
ject, bad reasoning, or the spirit of the 
demagogue. With the principles of the 
Idealist on the doctrine of the atonement, 
as represented by either of these sections 
of thought, one may get ready for differ- 
ences radical and important, as soon as 
it is agreed that Jesus had anything at 
all to do with the affair. But the ques- 
tion is as to that philosophy of things, 
and that theory of the universe upon 
which these ideas are based. 

Idealism does not profess to much of 
scientific accuracy. However, Mr. Froth- " 
ingham would have us think that when, 
in 1842, it was called " Transcendental- 
ism," it had " a creed, and a very definite 
one." 1 But this is the opinion of a dis- 
ciple rather than that of an apostle, which 
we accept, as must theological history, if 
he means that it was so definite in its re- 
sults that its energy is unmistakable. 
As related to this general view which we 
are taking in this chapter, it will be noted 
that it is not strange that we find theo- 

1 Transcendentalism in New England, pp. 184, 136. 



THE ATONEMENT. 155 

logical scholarship thus expressing itself* 
with respect to the impossibility of mak- 
ing, for the benefit of people who have 
some fragments of orthodoxy clinging to 
them, any intermediate classification : 

Prof. Smeaton, with all kindly sym- 
pathy for those who have such trouble in 
finding their position, mentions it as a 
problem he cannot solve — the making a 
fresh category for them, " partly," he says, 
" because a Trinitarian, such as Mr. Maur- 
ice and Mr. Davies, finds a place among 
the opponents of the Vicarious satisfac- 
tion, only by extreme inconsistency; 
partly because the supporters of this sec- 
ond opinion uniformly allow a veil to 
rest upon their Trinitarianism at this 
point ; and partly because, in this matter, 
they Socinianize, and can not be sundered 
from the sentiments and opinions of the 
school with which they symbolize." 1 

It is a very easy matter to identify, by 
a quotation of the literature, the funda- 
mental principles of these several schools 
of thought, which oppose the orthodox 

1 0ur Lord's Doctrine of the Atonement, p. 476. 
Appendix. 



156 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

and scriptural idea of the satisfaction of 
the death of Jesus Christ. It is a task as 
easy as the mere copying itself, to show 
that the spirit of the leading school is self- 
definded and self-asserted Idealism. 

~Eo restatement of the views of Fred- 
eric D. Maurice in the full light of au- 
thoritative Unitarian thought, on this 
topic, as given to the world in the tract 
of Dr. Furness, or in the admiring enthu- 
siam of Dr. Noyes, is necessary to show 
their outward similarity and their inward 
identity to this philosophy. So clear is 
this to the historian of the subject that 
the work of distinguishing them has not 
been undertaken. 

When, therefore, we find a Unitarian 
periodical analyzing the views of Mr. 
Maurice, and expressing itself in broad 
generalities, we set ourselves to the 
pleasant task of informing ourselves on 
the opinions of the school containing the 
reviewer and the reviewed, touching itself. 
And we think that if other people have 
any doubts about the Idealism of this 
school, it is manifest that the school itself 
has none, and the following is the opinion 



THE ATONEMENT. 157 

the Christian Examiner, when in cautious 
hands, had of this teacher : 

"He writes never in the clear, ' dry 
light' of science, always in the suffused 
and mellow light of imagination, senti- 
ment, and conscience. He loves to melt 
away the edges of our sharp, dogmatic 
theories; and shows us the thought, as 
physiologists study the living organism, 
in solution and in germ. So he is more 
suggestive than instructive, and piques 
more curiosity than he satisfies. Always 
widening the horizon of our vision, he 
shows the object we view in the flicker- 
ing, uncertain light, and in the strong 
refraction, that belong to the dividing- 
line of sky and earth. His style affects 
the soft, dim haze that seems to envelop 
his thought; and the hard, swift, positive 
habit Of mind we are all fallen into is im- 
patient at sentences and chapters written 
in a sort of unvarying potential mood." 1 

This is, indeed, as entertaining a piece 
of description as can be found ; and its 
accuracy can not be dobuted. It comes 

1 Christian Examiner, January, 1867, p. 115. 



158 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

with the authority of truth, while it is an 
expression of self-consciousness. 

Another example, among so many, may 
be pointed to, as suggestive. And what 
is more suggestive, at any time,' than self- 
assertion ? In the review of Dr. Bush- 
nell's " The Vicarious Sacrifice," b}^ Dr. 
James Freeman Clarke, there is no pre- 
dilection toward Transcendentalism, as 
the writer himself is as little afflicted, and 
has been, as any of the first spirits of the 
Unitarian Church. But there is a free 
expression of admiration for the work of 
Dr. Bushnell. Dr. Clarke says of it: 

" It is the first manly, frank, declara- 
tion from the Orthodox side that the 
whole Orthodox creed on this subject is 
empty. It takes its stand, not on tradi- 
tion, not on Scripture, not on the ex- 
pediences of technical religion, but on the 
'broad stone of honor,' the eternal in- 
stincts of right, of truth, of noble purpose, 
of manly generosity." 1 

Turning back a few pages we have this : 

a ¥e are amazed at his transcendental 
ethics, in part 8, chap. 1, in which the theo- 

1 Christian Examiner, May, 1866, p. 377. 



THE ATONEMENT. 159 

logical muse takes a loftier d-jmori flight 
than we have ever happened to observe 
outside of the vast abstractions of the 
Gnostics. It passes the flaming bounds 
of place and time, and reasons downward 
from what God might have been, till it 
arrives at last at what God is. It im- 
agines what would happen to the Diefy 
if He were to cast off moral restraint, and 
conceives that the shock ' would shiver 
the integrity of his mold, and leave him 
a wreck of eternal incapacity.' It tells 
us how God came to regard himself as 
elected to be Ruler, and how, when he 
found that moral creatures had broken 
the law, he instituted a government for 
them. So that, while our guide is thus 
moving before us, with supreme dominion, 
through the azure depths of these specu- 
lative heavens, we seem to be present at 
a convention called to make a constitu- 
tion for the moral universe, and to be 
reading an indicted chapter of the book 
of Genesis. 

"But it must, by no means, be supposed 
that these freaks of fancy, or flights of 



160 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

transcendental metaphysics make the chief 
substance of the essay." 1 

So natural is it for one, who, because 
of an instinctive fear of the principles 
which give tendency to the Unitarianism 
of the time, lives near the line where 
conservative Unitarianism and Orthodoxy 
lie against each other, to declare the 
genius of his faith and outline its flight in 
a freer air. Certainly it would be unfair 
to doubt the Idealism of such literature, 
and then, taking these writers at their 
word, we may be enabled better to under- 
stand them. 

From the innumerable declarations of 
this school of thought on this subject, 
which form a large portion of its utter- 
ance, one ought to select the words of 
at least an accredited writer; and, so, 
avoiding the use of a large pile of ex- 
cerpts on the same topic, we select Dr. 
James Martineau, to give us some defini- 
tive notion of the principles which, lying 
at the root of Unitarian theology, deter- 
mine the lines of the various dogmas, 
and especially those views of that doctrine 

ilbid, p. 373. 



THE ATONEMENT. 161 

whose horizon, in fact and in theory, is 
as large as eternity — the atonement. 

And Dr. Marti neau believes " the pre- 
rogative of reason to apply itself to the 
interior as well as the exterior of revela- 
tion ;" and so thoroughly does he believe 
this, that, with special reference to the 
doctrine of the Trinity and the doctrine 
of the Atonement, is he " prepared to 
maintain that if they were in the Bible, 
they would still be incredible; and that 
the natural improbability of a tenet is 
not to be set aside as a forbidden topic, 
but to be weighed as an essential part of 
the evidence which must determine its 
acceptance or rejection." l This is quoted 
here as a conservative utterance, and that 
this body may not suffer by misrepresen- 
tation. It is quoted for the reason that 
it may declare, in such unmistakable and 
forcible terms, the fundamental idea of 
this theology — which is at war with all 
true rules of interpretation, as acquired 
from the word of God, or, from the nature 
of things — seen to be necessary to the 
evolution of Christian doctrine, and in 

x Kationale of Keligious Enquiry, *2d. ed. pp. 70, 72. 



162 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

particular, to the discovery of that doc- 
trine which has so much to suggest and 
assert of the guilt of man, of the littleness 
of his plans of salvation, and of the 
erroneous idea, that, defiled with iniquity 
and Warped hy sin, he is able to apply 
tests to the utterances of Jehovah, and 
pass upon the rectitude of Almighty God. 

It is most unnecessary to say that it is 
Idealism in interpretation of scripture; 
and it-is scarcely needful to add that veg- 
etation growing upon such a soil can not 
fail to portray, in a form conditioned by 
the laws about it, its genius and life. In 
fact, we doubt if this phase of Idealism 
has had in all the history of philosophy, 
so clear an exposition as this, standing in 
very decided contrast to the saying of 
Hiliary and sound thought — "he is the 
best reader who expects to obtain sense 
from the words, rather than imposes it 
upon them; and who carries away more 
than he brought ; nor forces that upon 
the words which he had resolved to un- 
derstand before he began to read ; " ! and 
it is certain that one who admits all that 

1 De Trinita.te, Bk. 8, p. 25. 



THE ATONEMENT. 163 

such an Idealism as this supposes and au- 
thenticates shall have no clearness of eye 
to behold the Lamb of God taking away 
the sins of the World. There is no stop- 
ping place at the last verse of the Revel- 
ation ; the soul with conscience and the lit- 
erature of things has no barrier between 
it and such a sweeping current. But why 
stop to prove that it is Idealism ? Sim- 
ply, in order that, both by admission and 
the evident relation of facts to each 
other, we may be able to look at its re- 
sults in this connection, and that a large 
quotation and an elaborate treatment of 
false scripture interpretation may be 
avoided. 

Without enlarging our little volume to 
re-publish much that it were well for 
sound theism if it had never been pub- 
lished, and, as preparatory to our work in 
succeeding chapters, we assert that the 
doctrine of the atonement, as held hy the 
Unitarian church, in the various forms, 
has one system of principles as funda- 
mental, and upon which alone it is pos- 
sible — Idealism; and that not a only be- 
cause, as a general proposition, it is true 



164 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

that "the logical consequences" of such 
" Idealism are found in the pantheistic the- 
ory of the universe," l but, because of spe- 
cial relationships thereto, is such doctrine 
of the atonement another form of Pan- 
theism. 

1 Dr. Henry B. Smith's Faith and Philosophy, p. 
211. 



THE ATONEMENT. 165 



CHAPTER II. 

THE EXISTENCES INTERESTED IN THE ATONEMENT — 
GOD. 

u Fiat justitia, pereat mundus." 

"I have only one passion and that is himself, him- 
self." Count Zinzendorf. 

The proof of such a statement must be 
given in outline only, or in folios; audit 
is impossible to give it in outline except 
by a thorough classification of matter and 
a somewhat systematic treatment. 

We take it, that the doctrine of the 
atonement has reference to and power 
upon all our ideas of four existences, 
God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, 
the conscience of each human being, and 
the race, as a whole. We are quite aware 
that while three of these will be admitted 
to come within the scope of this doctrine, 
much doubt will be, as the singular fact 
of dogmatic history appears there al- 
ways has been, about the necessity of call- 
ing a fourth category as inclusive of the 



166 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

relations of the race, as a whole, to the 
doctrine of atonement. 

We think that here, conspicuously, has 
theology often lost its track, and that the 
existence of such erroneous views of the 
magnitude of the work of the atonement 
has its rationale in the fact that this ex- 
istence, the race as a whole, as effected by 
the deluge of moral evil, has been left 
out of the account with relerence to the 
Divine remedy. 

"We hold, that no just idea of the atone- 
ment can be gained until a just idea of 
what it must do to justify its name is first 
gained. Given certain ideas of a disease, 
and, if a remedy conquers it, the ideas 
of the remedy are as certainly and defi- 
nitely given. Given sin and its conse- 
quences, and an atonement pledged in 
God's name to repair the breach, and to 
bring God and man at one, is evermore 
defined, as the expression of its interior 
life is thus declared. It is all important 
that we find what individual existences 
this atonement affects; and, because sin 
is not personal by limitation of conse- 
quences, though it is personal in origin, 



THE ATONEMENT. 167 

because each sin lives and evil is self-prop- 
agative, as a potential factor in human 
history, because moral evil affects every 
man, and all moral evil affects, in a sug- 
gestive sense, each man ; because, any 
just atonement, any atonement which 
justifies its own name, must have to do 
with the evil, which, as a whole, comes 
upon the race as a whole, and because 
God's name and character are pledged to 
the success of the atonement through 
Christ ; we think that no view of this 
transaction is fair or complete with a 
knowledge of each conscience, of God, 
and of Christ, the Son of God, but that 
every full view of the atonement must 
have within its horizon, also, the human 
race as a whole. 

Having, then, these four existences to 
deal with, as one deals with the idea of 
atonement, w T e are ready to look at them 
by the considerations demanding an 
atonement, as they come to us. 

But our word is out, and it is not so 
much an investigation at present, as the 
proof of the truth of the proposition laid 
down, which is in order. We assert, as 



168 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

under and a part of the general state- 
ment, that the doctrine of the atonement 
in its various forms, as approved and 
enumerated by the Unitarian Church, 
with reference to God, as the first per- 
sonal existence in view, is founded in the 
principles of Idealism ; and beside the 
fact that the philosophy of Idealism is 
impossible, except on the pantheistic the- 
ory of the universe, there are special rea- 
sons to regard its spirit as pantheistic. 

We get our ideas of God from various 
sources, whatever proofs we use of the 
being of God. It makes very little dif- 
ference how much bad metaphysics is 
lavished on the soul and its phases of 
life-activity; when justice, and mercy, and 
holiness are spoken of, in its thought as 
related to God or man, no new idea of 
these comes of it. And so it must be 
said of the other sources of our knowl- 
edge of God, whatever has been done to 
cast discredit upon them. 

Consciousness has a literature of God. 
This atmosphere, which seems to be sight 
and seen, has large contributions to make. 
The large outlooks that come into us 



THE ATONEMENT. 169 

when we come into being, and the neces- 
sities of ourselves can not fail of testi- 
mony. Tradition has a credibility which 
has become partially unquestionable. 
The words of the Bible, in spite of all 
the commentaries, have been quoted, and 
yet are in use on the subject. 

We must travel slowly and not define 
too clearly, lest there be such an express 
declaration of principles that we quarrel ; 
yet, we must look through the same gen- 
eral idea at things under it. 

Now, Dr. Hedge, after' having taken 
up the " traditional idea of God" and hav- 
ing shown that because " it is an idea of 
such transcendent import'' it "could not fail 
to stimulate, in philosophic minds, the at- 
tempts to verify it by scientific demonstra- 
tion," 1 that, after all, Locke, Leibnitz, 
Cosmological, Physico-theological and 
Paley, Ontological and St. Anselm, with 
DesCartes and Spinoza, so far as they are 
names, either of people who want to 
prove God's existence, or of arguments 
to this efitect, are superannuated, and that 

1 Ways of the Spirit. Critique of the Proof of the 
Being of God, p. 144. 



170 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

there is " no proof of the existence of God 
in the sense of syllogistic demonstration," 
" none in which logic may not detect 
some flaw, some vulnerable point, some 
' ten do Achillis' exposed to the shafts 
of criticism," ] — lias given us reason, if we 
had none before, to look into conscious- 
ness to learn of God, by adding, that 
" God is his own witness, and his witness- 
ing of himself, in every unsophisticated 
mind and every sound heart, is the surest 
and most satisfactory proof we have of 
this primary truth. 2 And, proceeding 
upon such a philosophy, Dr. Hedge, in 
his essay on the " God of Religion," or 
"the Human God," 3 gives us some re- 
sults, so that we can proceed with him on 
this platform : u The God of Religion 
must be an intelligent and moral nature." 4 
"Again, we call God, moral governor, 
and judge, and we are right in so doing." 5 
Again, with, the idea ofUnitarianism, 

1 Ibid, p. 186. 

2 Ways of the Spirit, p. 188. 
8 Ibid, p. 210. 

4 Ibid, pp. 211, 219. 

5 Ibid, pp. 219, 220. 



THE ATONEMENT. 171 

that the Bible is a trifle anthropomor- 
phic, our thought coloring the conception 
of the word, just about as much as Dr. 
Hedge's playing with the word and idea, 
person, colors the above, we are told to 
go to the Bible for ideas of God in the 
affair of the atonement, as in everything 
else, since, as Unitariauism says, " we be- 
lieve in the Bible as the Word of God." 1 
"We profess to stand upon the same 
grounds as all other Christians — the 
Bible;" and, "Enough is it for us that 
the matter is divine, the doctrines true, 
the history authentic, the miracles real, 
the promises glorious, the threatenings 
fearful." 2 

Again, we are to hear the reason on 
the matter, since the Unitarian Church 
believes in " Reason in Religion" and one 
of her greatest has said in a book on the 
subject, that, "For want of counsel and 
concurrence of reason in times past, theol- 
ogy hasbuilded her house in vain." " What 
a really scientific building is to a crurn- 

1 "What do Unitarians Believe ? Dewy. A. U. A. 
p. 4. 

2 Ibid, pp. 5, 6. 



172 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

bling Gothic edifice, such is a rational 
theology to the rotten systems of the 
past," l and much else of the same sort, 
while Dr. Bellows begins his book, 
" Eestatement of Christian Doctrine," 
with the declared hope, that in it he does 
something to add "to the evidence 
. . . that the free use of reason is 
compatible with hearty faith," and gives 
the Holy Ghost the honor of being "the 
friend and ally of reason, for reason came 
from the same fountain," calling "it the 
elder sister of conscience," " the original 
of humanity," and, reaching a climax of 
admiring exclamation, proclaiming :" It 
is always . . . rational." 2 

Accepting these sources, so devoutly 
believed in by the Unitarian church, we 
first — because every volume of this school 
puts it first, and above all — meet the 
idea of God as Father, which, in and of 
itself, seems hallowed by such strong de- 
fenses of love aud mercy and truth, that 
such literature is certain to be most pleas- 
ant and devout reading ; but which idea 

»P. 215. 

2 Preface and Introduction, p. 8 



THE ATONEMENT. 173 

of God is put out as an offset to such 
other conceptions of Him as come from 
those very sources Unitarianism has 
given us. 

Now, if God is Father, he is such because 
of a more than loving heart or tender 
sympathy. If the paternal counsel is 
possible, it is possible because there is a 
regulative energy which molde love into 
forms of endurance and subsistance, into 
such forms as shall give to the divine 
gift the marks which signify what Dr. 
Hedge affirms we are bound to believe 
exist in God — morality, intelligence, and 
the functions of government. 

According to the principles laid down 
by Di*. Hedge, paternity which does not 
use the necessary elements of the God- 
idea is no paternity of God. So that 
Law and Government, and Judgment and 
Righteousness are necessary to the divine 
paternity. It is, therefore, a magnificent 
feat of the Philosophy of Unitarianism 
which reduces the Divine righteousness 
to nothing, and which magnifies the Di- 
vine love into the personality of God. 
Idealism has not closed its eyes on a more 



174 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

basic fact than that, — the lawgiving func- 
tion of God as a moral governor ; and it 
is a rare display of its exceedingly "sub- 
jective tendency," when it projects into 
consciousness and thought, the father- 
hood of God, which abides on the right- 
eousness of God, while this idea — the 
righteousness of God — we are told we 
can not verify, and we must not trust, 
though it be fundamental to what now, 
u God has called forth." 1 Indeed, the 
Fatherhood of God, 2 as taken by the 
Unitarian church, is a necessity from His 
nature, and it is fatherhood of a loving 
quality, because God happens to be an 
optimist of the Leibnitzian school. He 
must love and be merciful, we are told; 
we are also informed that He can not be 
God if He is wrathful and vindictive. 

Now, if He have no will to be angry, 
as angry as the moral government neces- 
sitates, then He is bound. How, then, 
can he be the Moral Governor? And if 
God is Father, more because He loves 

1 Berkley. 

2 See " The Name and Idea of God," article in the 
Christian Examiner. March, 1865, p. 198. 



THE ATONEMENT. 175 

the righteous than because He hates the 
sinful — and this by necessity — God is not 
Father, in any sense of value to us — He 
is Pan. The Idealism which transforms 
God, whose face we see in the Scripture, 
which Scripture Unitarians believe, as 
"angry with the wicked every day," and 
" of too pure eyes to behold iniquity," 
with such lineaments of justice, as that, 
in the presence of his wrath, the ques- 
tion, u Shall not the judge of all the 
earth do right?" is its own answer, ex- 
pressing such a strongly founded father- 
hood, that " the wicked, and Him that 
joveth violence, His soul hateth," while 
"righteousness and judgment are the 
habitation of His throne;" expressing 
also such deep fountains of love that such 
rock- bail dec! sides of holiness hold them 
for man, as are seen in His law, His pun- 
ishment, and His provisions for the salva- 
tion of men ; yea, any philosophy which 
can resolve these expressions into anthro- 
pomorphism has set the seal of philoso- 
phic infamy upon its forehead, as it 
thus discloses the " pit from which it was 
digged." 



176 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

Unitarianism seems anxious to drive 
the idea of God into a corner and sur- 
round it, until it is compelled to say that 
it is all benevolence. 

In the authoritative tract of Dr. Fur- 
ness, sent out b}^ the Unitarian Associa- 
tion, among others, to do missionary 
work for the cause and spirit of liberal 
religion, we are told flatly, "God knows 
no wrath, not on account of His justice ; " 
that "His justice is but another name 
for the Divine Attribute, which under 
a different aspect, in a different rela- 
tion, is mercy, but because the nature of 
things, and nature of man, make it ne- 
cessary." l 

Now if this is true, that what we have 
called the attributes of God are but differ- 
ent aspects of one thing, everything de- 
pends on that one thing. And, if Unit- 
arian theology is to be believed, that one 
thing is Benevolence. But, accepting 
this, the name of the thing must be 
changed, as well as the idea, since, with- 

1 A Brief Statement of the Christian Doctrine of 
the Atonement. W. H. Furness. Boston, A. XL A., 
p. 6. 



THE ATONEMENT. 177 

out such change, and under the dominion 
of these principles, we are reduced to Pan, 
who has no volition, and can not will vxll 
to any thing or any body. 

God is necessary Beuevolence, if He at 
the center and innermost chamber of His 
self-hood is Benevolence simply. He is 
unfree, and wnfree omnipresence is the fun- 
damental postulate of Pantheism. " God 
is Love" is a larger postulate than " God 
is the Benevolence and its sides;" and 
the reaching of such a postulate as this 
latter is not accomplished except by the 
full exercise of subjective Idealism. Ob- 
jectivity to an attribute of God is so far 
removed from the spirit of Unitarianisni 
that a most narrow view of the Infinite 
is gained, and would be, if either attribute 
were magnified at the expense of the rest. 1 

!Not even the ambitious originality of 
our American Unitarianisni, and far less 
that of any other land, has seen so deeply 
into this phase of the subject as the Tran- 
scendentalist of the eleventh century, 

1 See, on this topic, Dr. Peabody's Tract, " God the 
Father." 



178 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

Peter Abelard, 1 who, with a true faith in 
that subjective Idealism which after- 
ward had somewhat of expression in 
Fichte, believed in the power of love as 
redemptive, and this because redemption 
is merely subjective. Such is the Ideal- 
ism which , long before Mr. Emerson, wrote 
of the World- Soul with reference to 
heathen and Christian. 

In the subjective theology 2 there is 
little room for any sort of:' objective Di- 
vine Government ; but large room for any 
unfolding of the Universe. There is no 
room for the parties, God and man, un- 
less by an understanding that necessity 
pervades things, and that, since this is so, 
there is no break between them. 3 

As truly, therefore, as there is love or 
as '•' God is Love," so true is it that this 

1 Shedd, History of Christian Doctrine, Yol. II., p. 
■287. 

2 Cf. Van Oosterzee's Christian Dogmatics, Vol. I., 
p. 246 et seq. 

Hodge's Systematic Thology, Vol. I., p. 111. 
Ueberweg's History of Philosophy. Vol. I., p. 390 
et sea. 

3 Cf. Herzog's Ileal Encyclopedia, Article "Theism," 
by H. Ulrici; also Article "God" by Nitzsch. 



THE ATONEMENT. 179 

love is freely willed and not necessitated. 
To dispose things, to guard Himself, to 
give this love to creatures — as well as that 
things may subsist — is government. The 
unfreedom of God makes government 
impossible. The unchangeableness of 
God with regard to free agents as they 
obey or disobey implies this unfreedom. 
Assuredly the Perfection of God is not 
His unfreedom, and God is not king but 
Pan if He is unfree : yet we are told that 
Jesus " did not come to work any change 
in the Divine mind, for that, being per- 
fect, is unchangeable in love," 1 and this 
is only one presentation of a general idea 
underlying this theology. 

Without recalling and restating the 
only scriptural, rational, and hence, true 
view of the matter, it is evident and pain- 
fully so, that this short-cut to Pantheism 
has not been left in these latter times, but 
in harmony with the advances of Unit- 
arian theology elsewhere, this road has 
become a common avenue. God freely 
declaring in every act u I am that 1 am" 
gives the only solution to problems of life. 

1 Tract by Dr. Furness. 



180 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

He is not " bound hand and foot," except 
as his Infinite Free Personality subsists. 
He is not such, if the theology under ex- 
amination is true. In fact, as said, he is 
only Pan. There is no moral govern- 
ment. Justice can easily be talked of as 
love, since there is none. The wrath of 
God as a scripture-fact is softened into 
love by Idealism, and Pautheism calls it 
one of his life-phases. 

It will be noticed that even the gospel of Hedon- 
ism is not so blind to the facts in the case. Mr. Sidg- 
wick, though, so much devoted to certain assumptions, 
as to merit the sharpest criticism (The " Suppression " 
of Egoism, Alfred Bar rat, Mind, 1877, p. 179. Also, 
Mr. Sidgwick's "Hedonism," by F. H. Bradley; Sidg- 
wick on Bradley's Ethical Studies, Mind, 1876, p. 545; 
Bain on Sidgwick's Method, Mind, 1876, p. 179; 
Henry Calderwood's " Mr. Sidgwick on Intuitional- 
ism," Mind, 1876, p. 197; Sidgwick's Answer to Cal- 
derwood, Mind, 1876, p. 563.), has done himself the 
credit of making "twoEules," "the Rule of Equity 
and the Rule of Benevolence," the first of which he 
uses as the principle of " Objectivity" (The Methods 
of Ethics, London, p. 358), and which, being thus 
used, saves his already faulty system from the most 
vicious Pantheism. 

John Grote, to accomplish the same for his system, 
finds it necessary to distinguish three forms of the 



THE ATONEMENT. 181 

moral ideal : "1. Eight, or Faciendum ; 2. Bonum, or 
the Desirable; 3. Happiness." (Treatise on the Moral 
Ideals, Mayor's edition, Cambridge, 1877. Xoticed 
by Henry Sidgwick in Mind, 1877, p. 243.) 



182 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE EXISTENCES INFLUENCED IN THE ATONEMENT. 
— GOD. 

u Deeply, my Daughter, hast thou sinned 
Against the exalted throne of right." 

Sophocles. 
" Glorious in holiness." 

But we would learn more of God. It 
is a commonplace of theology that the 
idea of sin has to do with all our ideas 
of God and His operation. And, as has 
been remarked, the literature of the 
atonement has no meaning, except as the 
significance of this fact falls upon it. We, 
therefore, seek the nature of God through 
finding the nature of sin. 

We are brought immediately into the 
presence of law and government. And 
we are met at once witii a large literature 
from the sources which Unitarian writers 
have pointed oat to us. If we are to pay 
such attention to the God who speaks in 
conscience with the power and clearness 
that this theology speaks of, we must be 



THE ATONEMENT. 183 

ready to take decided opinions as the ex- 
pressions of the necessary ideas we thus 
obtain of well-defined characteristics and 
attributes. We have been walking with 
Dr. Hedge, and have learned of him the 
sources of this knowledge. We have 
also, and from the same source, many ex- 
pressions on sin. Besides the free out- 
bursts on the subject in his earlier books, 
there are these in his later volumes, as 
the result of this scholar's life and 
thought : . . u The experience of evil 
is a necessary part of man's education, a 
necessary stage in the progress of the 
soul to the highest life. We can know 
good only through evil — only by victory 
over evil can good be reached." l 

ISTow, what he means by this, we do 
not know, unless he has changed his 
opinion about the necessity of sin, for he 
certainly forgets sin when he talks of "a 
state where violence and fraud shall no 
more molest, and wars shall cease ; where 
the law of love shall reign supreme, and 

1 The Primeval World of Hebrew Tradition, Bos- 
ton edition, 1872, p. 120. 

Consult also Ways of the Spirit, pp. 212, 216, 250. 



184 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

shed eternal sunshine on the soul ; a com- 
monwealth of regenerate and perfected 
humanity, a paradise of innocence and 
peace." He adds that this state " for 
which we are to strive" " is one" where- 
in " whatever is false and degrading in 
civilization shall be done away ; its fear- 
ful inequalities, the disproportion of la- 
bor and compensation, the dear-bought 
luxury of the few, the ill-requited service 
of the many, and all the crimes and dis- 
tresses which spring from abject poverty 
on the one. hand, and inordinate wealth 
on the other, etc.," . . . " such will 
be the condition of perfected man." l 

But we must take the ripest book of 
the author's experience and culture as 
the exponent of his best thought. In 
this he says ; " The time will never come 
when evil shall wholly cease from the 
earth, when all wrong shall be expunged, 
suffering unknown, and 

" Fear and sin and grief expire, 
Cast out by perfect love." 

Neither in this world, nor in any future 

1 Primeval World, pp. 56, 57, 58. 



THE ATONEMENT. 185 

world, is such a state possible. Evil there 
always must be. Old evils may be abol- 
ished, but new evils will spring. The 
health of humanity requires the existence 
of evil as incentive to effort and topic of 
action. Progress is better than perfec- 
tion. Finding is good, but seeking is 
better, if finding is to end in rest of the 
found. The kingdom of heaven must 
be always coming ; but hope would ex- 
pire if it were fully come. And the say- 
ing remains forever true, that, " by hope 
we are saved." l 

No one will wonder that the next essay 
is called "Pantheism,''* and that it seems 
an apologetical essay from this point of 
view as " Modern Doubt and Christian 
Belief" is from a theistic philosophy. 

But on this topic of sin, as a way to 
get at the idea of God, other and as full- 
orbed Unitarians as Dr. Hedge have 
spoken in all the years of church history. 
To quote from them as largely as we have 
from Dr. Hedge, would be to fill a large 
volume with the Unitarian idea of sin. 
In order, however, that we may have a 

1 Ways of the Spirit, pp. 250, 251. 



186 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

true conception, and that no one may be 
allowed to represent or misrepresent, we 
will reprint quotations from Dr. Bellows, 
since they come with great authority, and 
are historic words. 

One will find that it is a very easy matter 
to get from the lips of the average Unit- 
arian preacher the most pantheistic no- 
tions of sin, and especially when he ful- 
minates before the Free Religious Associa- 
tion, describes Mr. Moody's ways and fail- 
ures, or writes an article in criticism. It 
is another thing, though attended with 
no great effort, to get so clear an utterance 
as the following — clear because it is con- 
sistent with itself, and is well studied and 
profound Unitarianism declaring its or- 
ganic relation to the pantheistic philoso- 
phy. Says Dr. Bellows : 

" If you look into any work of natural 
history for an account of the lion, you 
will find him described as a powerful, 
ferocious animal, capable of destroying 
the most fierce and dangerous beasts of 
the forest; his height four feet, his length 
six or eight, his mane shaggy and copious, 
his roar deafening, his claws of enormous 



THE ATONEMENT. 1S7 

size, sharpness, and power. Bat suppose 
the hunter, coming upon the lion's den, 
in the absence of the dam, finds the new- 
born whelps, hunts them with his hounds, 
and carries them home as his trophies. 
They are young lions ! But how do they 
correspond with the naturalist's descrip- 
tion ? Yet they certainly have the nature 
of the lion, and the naturalist has de- 
scribed the lion truly. It is evident that 
the naturalist would have done no justice 
to the lion's nature, if he has given the 
whelp as a sample of it. 

" Does it not at once come home to us, 
that the nature of a thing is described 
only when the perfection of which it is 
capable, and to which it ultimately at- 
tains, is depicted; that the whelp is not 
the lion ; that the oaken sapliug is not 
the oak; that the infant is not the man; 
that the growing, undeveloped, unregu- 
lated human creature, is not the repre- 
sentative of human nature? 

" All lions do not come to their majestic 
growth; all oaks are not spreading and 
long-lived; but this does not make the 
lion less than the kin^ of beasts, the oak 



188 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

less than the monarch, of the woods. It 
may, however, property be asked, whether, 
if only here and there a lion, or an oak 
were found of noble proportions, we 
should still hold on to our lofty descrip- 
tion of these products. I answer, per- 
haps not ; for the ordinary and permanent 
circumstances in which things are placed, 
must be accepted as a part of their de- 
scription or nature. 

" If an orange-tree in a glass-house w^ere 
capable of being grown to the size of an 
oak, w T e should not call this forced and 
unnatural product a representative of the 
nature of the orange-tree. But in truth 
such artifical circumstances are not capa- 
ble of producing the perfection of any 
fruit." . . . "If the errors, sins, follies, 
mistakes of humanity are such as were 
to have been expected from the infancy 
of an immortal creature, made in the im- 
age of God ; if they have a tendency to 
correct themselves; if they diminish as 
the race grows older; if the providence 
of God, natural and supernatural, is suc- 
cessfully directed to the education, and 
adapted, by ever improving methods, to 



THE ATONEMENT. 189 

the theory of his gradual and progressive 
emancipation ; then there is nothing in 
the admitted blunders, failures, or sins of 
the race, to discourage our hopes of it, or 
abate our respect for its design. If it is 
of the nature of humanity to grow, and 
to grow in alternate moral sunshine and 
storm; to grow amid winds that some- 
times uproot it, or break its boughs, hut 
oftener under rains that feed its roots and 
skies that warm its sap — then we must 
not adduce its ruined specimens, or its 
bruised and battered branches, as evi- 
dences of its worthlessness, or of the 
divine indignation, but acknowledge that 
its general trials and obstacles, and even 
individual overthrows, are not inconsistent 
with its characteristic success. Man ad- 
vances, though men fall." l 

" If Adam fell, the race rose hy his fall ; 
he fell up, and nothing happier for our 
final fortunes ever occurred than when 
the innocents of the garden learned their 
shame, and fled into the hardships and 
experiences of a disciplinary and growing 

1 Be-statements of Christian Doctrine, pp. 224, 225. 
226. 



190 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

humanity. Nor think me bold in saying 
as much as this ; for the whole Christain 
scheme proceeds upon the popular hypo- 
thesis that 'sin abounded, that grace 
might more abound.' Would the Church 
consent to give up its Christ, to regain 
its unfallen Adam ? But for the fallen 
Adam, according to its theory, we could 
not have had the risen Christ As our 
text says of the Jews, it may be said also 
of our lirst parents — 'Have they stumbled 
that they should fall? God forbid; but 
rather through their fall, salvation is 
come unto the Gentiles.' Has not God 
himself then made Adam's fall a blessing 
to the race? And if so, why do we incon- 
sistently continue to call it a curse? The 
truth is, God's curses are only blessings 
in disguise, and his punishments, the- 
strokes of his mercy and love." 1 

" And thus the lite that now is, is pro- 
bationary to that which is to come ; as 
youth is to manhood, and manhood to 
old age. But the truer term for it is a 
disciplinary and educational state — in the 
result of which all abused, neglected or 

1 Ke-statements, p. 226 



THE ATONEMENT. 191 

perverted talents and opportunities, will 
give a retributive account of themselves 
at the bar of God, which is the eternal 
law of our moral constitution/' 2 

Taking' these, which all who know the 
condition of Unitarian theology will say 
are exceedingly conservative, and savor 
far less of Pantheism than the daily ut- 
terances of this body as a whole, let us 
look at the idea of God as we look at 
His idea of Sin. 

The literature of conscience, " one mode 
of God's speech," as we are informed, is in 
most radical contradiction to these utter- 
ances. And if God has the aversion of 
sin which any accurate exegesis of con- 
science discloses, He has been misrepre- 
sented in one attribute by excessive at- 
tention to another. Conscience girds Bim 
with the sacredness of law, and enrobes 
Him in all the terrible grandeur of A Moral 
Rider of a universe such as this. Look- 
ing out of this " window of the soul," 
which we are informed conscience is, the 
eternal God holds the lightnings of wrath 
over the sinner, while on their shining 

2 Re-statements, pp. 239, 240. 



192 MET A MORPH OSES OF A CREED. 

blades drop the tears of pity. Every 
experience of conscience with sin is the 
experience of a traveler's eye with a 
crowned mountain of stone, whose over- 
hanging summit is ready to fall upon a 
village below. Conscience feels the eter- 
nal self-hood of God, and such ideas of 
sin as we have given are annihilated. 
She discerns the Righteousness of God, 
and without fear feels that w r hen under 
its protection she has found that " God 
is Love." Conscience discerns the anxi- 
ous gaze of the Infinite One, and finds 
there that fatherly care speaks most 
eloquently through " eyes too pure to he- 
boid iniquity." She finds rest and hope 
— not such rest as Dr. Hedge talks of, 
nor such hope — but such as comes from 
love; and she finds them, in their finest 
forms, when she cries out from her inner- 
most chamber : " Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord 
God Almighty, which was, and is, and 
is to come." 

Conscience finds a law, the disobe- 
dience of which must be attended with 
terrible consequences. Conscience finds 
the lawgiver looking upon the disobe- 



THE ATONEMENT. 193 

client as in hostility to Him, to the Uni- 
verse, and to its government. Most em- 
phatically does God, as revealed in con- 
science, or, as Mr. Jowett calls it, "the 
moral sense," treat sin, not as a negation, 
a privation, a limitation, a necessity, an 
expedient ; not u as a fall of a child learn- 
ing to walk," nor as " a fall upward," 
but as a corruption of God-given powers, 
in open defiance to God, to His law, and 
to the best interests of the universe, and 
these in sight of the most fearful conse- 
quences. It is from the high point of con- 
science that David speaks, when he sees 
this vast subject, and sings, " Thy mercy is 
above the heavens, and thy truth reach- 
eth unto the clouds" and it is in " His 
salvation" that " mercy and truth are met 
together; righteousness and peace have kissed 
each other" 

The Bible, "another revelation," as we 
are told, is clearly defined in its position 
with regard to God ? s nature as seen in 
His treatment of sin, both as a sadly 
fearful fact and as making large demands 
upon the infinite resources for remedy. 
In fact, sin appears to be an entirely dif- 



194: METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

ferent thing in the mind of God, and to 
demand much more serious treatment, in 
truth, a totally different treatment, than 
in the mind of the Unitarian Church. 

The Bible, which Uuitarianism is said 
to " stand upon," produces in the mind 
an idea of God the very opposite of what we 
would expect from the extracts we have 
collected, as the Unitarian consciousness 
of sin; and this difference is the more il- 
lustrative as Unitarianism is so profes- 
sedly true to " the moral sense," " the 
Bible, another revelation," and " reason 
in religion." He hates sin because of its 
nature, 1 because of its relation to His gov- 
ernment, 2 because of its relation to His 
creatures, made in His own image. 3 He 
loves the powers, whose prostitution He 
sees in the sinner, no more than He hates 

1 Gal. v. 19-21; Rom. viii. 1-13; Eph. ii. 3; Gen. 
xvi. 12; Heb. x. 26; Rom. iv. 15; Gen. xxxix. 9; 
2 Cor. v. 15; John, xv. 2-1 ; Rom. iii. 19. 

2 Is.liii.G; Is. Ixiv. 6; Ps. cxliii. 2; Ps. cxxx. 3 ; 
Rom. iii. 19; 1 John, v. 19; 2 Thes. ii. 3, 4 ; 1 John, 
iii. 4; Gen. iii. 6. 

3 Ex. xxxiv. 6. 7; Jer. xxxii. 18; Rom. v. 12-21; 1 
Cor. xv. 21-22; 2 (Jor. xi. 14; Rom. i. 31 ; 2 Tim. iii. 



THE A TONEMENT. 195 

his sin. 1 His provision for the salvation 
of all who will believe, shows the Divine 
opinion of sin, which is the expression 
of the irreconcilableness of the two. 2 
This, indeed, is the intensity of that 
Idealism, which has its form in the the- 
ology under examination, that it reduces 
the plain significance of the Bible to 
ashes. 

Kot less potent is this spirit when God, 
as an idea, falls into the reason and His 
nature is thus talked of. By as clear a 
reduction is He made less and less inter- 
ested in the affairs of sin, until, at last, 
sin seems to get a benediction from 
His very silence. When the reason pro- 
tests that there can not be two moral sys- 
tems in this universe, that " the moral 
sense " in man must a^ree with the moral 
consciousness of God, and that, therefore, 
what conscience demands on the ground 

1 Eccl. iv. 3; Job. xv. 14-18; Gen. vi. 5,6; Jer. 
xvii. 9; Mat. xii. 33; Eccl. iv. 18; 1 Tim. v. 22; Mat. 
xviii. G, 7; Luke, iii. 17, 18; Mat. vi. 20-21; Horn, 
viii. 19-23. 

2 lCor. ii. 4; Gal. ii. 21 ; Gal. iii. 21; Eph. i. 10; 
II eb. ii. 14-16; 1 Pet. ii. 22; Rom. iii. 25; Heb. ii. 10; 
Ileb. iv. 9; Heb. x. 14; Lev. xvii. 10; Is. liii. 



196 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

of her necessities must exist for her in 
God, who is the moral source, that the 
soul has done evil in the past, and ill-des- 
ert hangs over her, that the moral sense 
declares that she has all she can do to meet 
present duty and obligation, that, there- 
fore, she must have outside help, and 
that, since, as happily agree conscience 
and Dr. Hedge, " the evil there is in the 
world can be abolished only by supplant- 
ing it with good," 1 this outside help 
must be a substitution, and that, because 
God must be its source, it must be a sub- 
stitution by Him and from Him, and for 
the sake of conscience and the soul, — ■ 
while reason thus protests, as against so 
much teaching, that thus there must be 
an at-one-ment, and a vicarious atone- 
ment, Unitariauisui declares the non-ex- 
istence of power in God, as amoral Gov- 
ernor, to any such desirable result. God 
is, therefore, bound " hand and foot," as 
Heine says, so far as the most important 
and necessary act of Deity toward hu- 
manity is concerned. Fettered as He is, 
sin must " work out its finer results." 

1 The Primeval World, p. 6i. 



THE ATONEMENT. 197 

Bat must men worship this " eternal 
Pan ? " And what, but an 

" eternal Pan, 
Who layeth the world's incessant plan," 

is One who can neither be wronged nor in- 
jured, who seems, and is, as content when 
His laws are obeyed as when they are dis- 
obeyed ; whose authority can not be in- 
fringed upon, and whose resources of 
power, as delineated by " the moral sense," 
are out of His reach and influence? 

The truth, is, what Unitariauism as- 
sumes with regard to the justice of God, 
moral government, 1 and the unchangeable- 
ness of God's relation to the souls of 
men, leads inevitably to Pantheism. 2 

1 " Deus sine dominio, providentia, et causis final- 
ibus, nihil aliud est quarn Fatum et Natura." New- 
ton. " Pantheism misses what is equally essential in 
Theism — the attribute of holiness, and with it. the re- 
lated idea of a moral government exercised by God 
over rational moral natures." Hedge. Ways of The 
Spirit, p. 2G3. 

2 "Spinoza is the typical exponent of Pantheism." 
Page 263. "The weakness of Spinozism, of Pan- 
theism as expounded by him, consists in the relaxa- 
tion of the moral sense—the moral indifferentism re- 
sulting from a system which not only refers all action, 



198 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

good or evil, directly to God, as the one immediate and 
only actor in all. but virtually denies all distinction 
between good and evil, by resolving, as we have seen, 
the notion of any such distinction into inadequate 
cognition." Hedge, p. 283. 



THE ATONEMENT. 199 



CHAPTEK IV. 



OTHER EXISTENCES INTERESTED AND INFLUENCED. 

'• His hands with gore are dripping, and he holds 
A sword drawn newly, and an olive branch 
Chastely en wrapt with wool of whitest fleece." 

^ESCHYLUS. 

u Allen sundern soil vergeben, und die 
Holle nicht mehr sein." 

Schiller. 

A like exegesis is made by the same 
spirit, with regard to the race as a whole. 
Take any view of this existence, as may 
be suggested by Plato, in his spiritual 
politico- economics, the every-day think- 
er, in conversation, or the pantheistic 
Emerson or Schelling, with the " Over- 
soul ;" the doctrines of the essay on " His- 
tory," and the theory of the " System 
of Transcendental Idealism" — the human 
race is still a largely interested individ- 
uality, and no system can afford to neglect 
it. 

But Unitarian Idealism, as a matter of 
fact, stands with the late essay of Dr. 



200 METAMORPHOSES OE A CREED. 

Hedge. ,; The Way of History," in one 
hand, with the Broad-church presentation 
of the atonement, as written by Mr. Jow- 
ett and edited by Harvard's professor of 
sacred literature, in the other, and while 
evil is propagative, the consciences of 
men in all the centuries past declare 
that they have neither ability nor oppor- 
tunity to remedy the evil of the souls to 
which they are the " moral sense ;" that 
this tide is gathering, and for all that the 
human race can do, is sweeping down the 
ages, also, while reason, experience, and 
the bible, " another revelation,"' declare 
that there is no hope, unless by substitu- 
tion of good for evil, and that, as we have 
seen.it must come from God, and be such 
a substitution of good as shall be compe- 
tent for all this volume of evil — that what- 
ever it is, it must be as high as the throne 
of God, and as far-reaching as the re- 
motest moment of eternity — while these 
are as surely the literature of that " great 
soul'"'* as that it has a literature, Dr. Fur- 
ness puts out his protest against a substi- 
tution of any sort, and Dr. Bellows de- 
clares the vicarious satisfaction a ''blind- 



THE ATONEMENT. 201 

ing heresy ;" l and, as a positive statement 
with regard to a so-called atonement, 
Kobert Collyer shows how Carlyle was 
engaged in the true one; 2 a hundred 
lectures and sermons show that Jesus was 
notDivine, and did not want to be thought 
even "good," 3 while all seem to under- 

1 Ee-statements of Christian Doctrine, A. U. A., p. 
306. 

2 The Life that Now Is. " Vine and Branches," p.* 
56. " So Elijah was the Vine to Elisha, and David 
to Jonathan, and Paul to Timothy, and Socrates to 
Plato. ... I meet men every day who feel that 
without Charming or Parker, or Swedenborg or Wes- 
ley, they can do nothing. . . . ' Without me, ye 
can do nothing.' " Ibid, p. 57. 

3 (a.) " William Furness writing to me once about 
the distinction made in a new life of Jesus, between 
the human and thedivine, in his nature, said: ' I re- 
gret this distinction, because Jesus is the most human 
being that ever lived, and therefore the most divine. 
His divinity lay in his pure humanity.' " Collyer. 

This is certainiy finer than Mr. Emerson has it, and 
we do not remember of Pantheism putting the mat- 
ter so well. -But after all, does this make our anthro- 
pomorphism as culpable? We do not know which 
sort of anthropomorphism is the more dangerous, 
that which starts with God, humanizing Him, or that 
which begins with man, deifying him. In fact, on 
this platform, we know of nothing so fully anthropo- 
morphic as Carlyle's "Hero Worship." 

(b.) "Christ himself recoiled from the ascription 



202 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

stand that after so much of this Calvary 
and Gethsemane, " man must deliver him- 
self ;" -while thus Christianity is express- 
ing itself, this, the authentic expression 
of a conservative Idealism, passes into a 
statement of theology. 

But "there is no need that it (evil) be 
put out of existence." Then, indeed, 
must it be necessary ; and if necessary, 
we nre living under a pantheistic regime. 

Thus we do not wonder that Dr. Hedge 
has found " peace " with Schopenhauer, 
who is pessimistic only by following the 
optimism which Dr. Hedge recommends 
so earnestly, 2 to its results. 

Beside the facts which appear in the 
life of conscience, as looked at in the race 
as a whole, as expressive of the fact that 
the Idealism of Unitarian theology has 
been intense enough to reduce the whole 

of good, in his own humble consciousness of heights 
of excellence yet to be won." Bellows, Dr., Ke-state- 
ments of Christian Doctrine, p. 236. 

1 Kant, Eeligion Innerhalb, D. G. Vernunft, p. 88. 
De Wette. 

JSchleiermaeher, Christ' Glaube, Yol. ii., p. 103. 

2 Ways of the Spirit, p. 250. 



THE ATONEMENT. 203 

to nothing, we cite the following as re- 
lated to this argument : 

1. Sin is culpable while it is " bond- 
age " and " darkness." 

2. Conscience does not desire ei the ad- 
vent of more truth," as an offset to the 
sins of the past, but conscience does de- 
sire that good be substituted for them, 
and that she be delivered. She desires 
" provocation," and much else. 

3. Conscience desires the maintenance 
of the moral law, being " the moral 
sense." 

4. As a fact of Christian experience, 
the atonement, as wrought by Christ, does 
not "offend the moral sense," though it 
does offend an absurd philosophy, but 
gives bliss and hope. 

We assert also, that the ideas of sin 
which are said by this theology to be in 
harmony with conscience, are pantheistic. 
These propositions we do not stop to 
argue, as they are either self-evident, and 
hence need no argument, or have been, or 
will be, set forth at length in other chap- 
ters. 

But He who trod " the wine press 



204 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

alone," is the central figure in the atone- 
ment, by the admission of all schools of 
thought. Not more clear is this, than 
that, as in the cases of the human race as 
a whole, the conscience of each human 
being, and God the Father, as they are 
affected by or concerned in the doctrine 
of the atonement, so, here, the spirit of 
Unitarian theology is Idealism, and for 
other reasons than that all Idealism is 
possible only on the pantheistic theory of 
the universe, is its especial manifestation 
in this connection pantheistic. 

We do not propose, and it is certainly 
needless, to show from what Jesus Christ 
taught with regard to the atonement, that 
He had a totally different idea of it than 
that held by the Unitarian Church. To 
avoid the necessity of thus re-asserting the 
orthodox idea, with its foundation in the 
person of Jesus, the life and death of 
Christ, His abundantly expressed con- 
sciousness on the subject of sin, and the 
manner of His accomplishing an atone- 
ment, as between God and man : and on 
the other hand, that the argument may 
still lose no force, here, from any lack of 



THE ATONEMENT. 205 

exhibition of the workings of Idealism as 
resulting in the Unitarian theory of the 
atonement, 1 we subjoin the following: 

1. The fact of Jesus Christ, such as his- 
tory presents Him., is only justifiable on the 
ground of the necessity and consummation 
of the vicarious sacrifice. 

2. The sayings of Jesus concerning sin 
and its results, are to be understood only as 
proceeding from Him who at the time ivas 
consciously the person by whose act such 
vicarious satisfaction is accomplished. 2 

1 Cf. Dr. Henry W. Bellows' Ke-statements of 
Christian Doctrine, Sermon, "The Suffering Christ;" 
Dr. James F. Clarke's Truths and Errors of Ortho- 
doxy, "The Orthodox Atonement," in which, after 
saying: — " Christ plunged into the midst of sin, to save 
souls, as a hero rushes into the midst of burning- 
flames to save lives. No man like Jesus had ever 
felt such anguish and horror at the sight of sin ; but 
instead of flying from it, he came into the midst of it, 
to save the sinner. This was the secret of his agony, 
the bitterness of his cup " — he gives a view of the 
"moral influence theory," which, while it lacks the 
consistency of the ordinal Unitarian statements, 
gains nothing new in principle from its semi-Sabel- 
lianism. 

2 John viii. 12; Mark x. 25; Matt. xi. 28, Matt. 
xxv. 46; Mark xiv. 21 ; Matt, xxiii. 27, 28 ; Luke xvi. 
13; Matt. vi. 12; John viii. 44; John vii. 37; Matt. 



206 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

3. The sayings of Jesus concerning Him- 
self and His works can be understood only 
by referring them to the person by whose act 
the vicarious sacrifice is made} 

xvi. 24; Matt. iii. 10; Luke xiii. 2, 3, 4; Matt. iii. 
2, 6; James ii. 10; John viii. 84; Matt. v. 6 : John 
v. 29; Matt. xii. 33, 35; Mark vii. 21-23; Eomans 
v., vi., vii.; John viii. 25; Mark ix. 43, 44; Matt. v. 
21-46; Matt. ix. 12, 13 ; Luke xi. 39 ; etc. 

iJohn i. 29. Cf. Livermore (A. A. Kev.) Com- 
mentary, published by A. U. A. 

John xxvi. 28. 

Matt. xx. 28. Compare Thompson, Theology of 
Christ, p. 63; Smeaton, Our Lord's Doctrine, p. 194; 
also Girdlestone's Synonyms of Old Testament, p. 
214, on Ivrpov. 

John x. 8. 

Luke xix. 10. Cf. Alford and Stier on. 

John xiv. 6. 

Matt. iv. 12. Cf. Morrison, Dr., Disquisitions and 
Notes (A. U. A.) 

John iii. 16. 

Mark x. 45; viii. 37. Cf. Stier (Words of Lord 
Jesus) on. 

Matt. xiii. 1. Cf. Morrison on. 

John vi. 39. 

John xvii. 25. Cf. Olnhausen. with Tholuck on. 

Matt. xi. 28. 

John vii. 37. Cf. Meyer on. 

Matt. v. 17. 

Matt. v. 6. 

Matt. ix. 13. ) Cf. Dr. Morrison, Disquisitions 

Matt. xxvi. 28. } and Notes (A. U. A.) 



THE A TON EM EN T. 207 

4. The sayings of others concerning Jesus 
and His work can be understood only as re- 
John iii. 29. 

Matt. ix. 15, 

. , [ Cf. Smeaton, Our Lord's Doctrine. 

j • 4. [ Compare with Lange. 

John vi. 61. Cf. Stier with De Wette. 

John xvii. 19. Cf. Lange on. 

John iv. 42. 

John viii. 12. 

John xi. 25. 

John xi. 89. Cf. Meyer and Tholuek with Al- 
ford. 

John viii. 53. 

John viii. 24. . 

John ix. 26. 

John xi. 49. Cf. Tholuek on. 

Luke iv. 18. 

John x. 36. Cf. Stier and Olnhausen on. 

John vii. 28. { 

John iii. 17. J 

John x. 36. 

John vii. 33. 

John vi. 37-39. Cf. Meyer, Stier, and Olnhau- 
sen on. 

John xvii. 
. John iii. 13. Cf. Smeaton, Our Lord's Doctrine, 
on "Son of Man. 17 Cf. Maurice on same. 

John xi. 14. Cf. Smeaton, Our Lord's Doctrine, 
p. 37; also Lange on same. 

Matt, xxvi, 36. Cf. De Wette on; quoted and 
treated in " Theological Essays," edited by Dr. Noyes, 
p. 505. 



208 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

f erring to the person by whom such vicarious 
sacrifice was made. 1 

John xii. 27, 28. Cf. in Ibid. Dr. Noyes has in- 
serted a translation of Liicke, pp. 509, 510. 

Matt, xxvii, 46. Cf. Meyer on. Quoted also by 
I)r. Noyes, p. 510, "Theological Essays;" Smeaton, 
Our Lord's Doctrine, p. 158. 

Etc. 

Consult Murphy with Keil and 

1 Genesis ii. 17. | Delitzsch. Compare De Wettc 
Genesis iii. 15. j in Introduction to Old Testa- 
ment. 

Genesis iv. 7. See Tayler Lewis in Langes Com- 
mentaries. 

Genesis xlix. 18. 
Exodus viii. 13, 15. 
Exodus xxi. 30. 
Exodus xxx. 12-16. 
Lev. x. 17. 
Lev. xv. 22. . 
Lev. xxv. 25-31. 

2 Saml. vii. 12. 

Job xxxiii. 24. Cf. Dr. Noyes' translation, with 
Cowles' remarks on. 

Psalms ii. 7. Cf. Delitzsch on. 

Psalms xvi. 10. Cf. Dr. Noyes' translation and 
notes. 

Psalms xl. 6, 7, 8. Cf. Lange on. 

Psalms xl., xxii., xlix., cix. Cf. Smeaton, Our 
Lord's Doctrine, with Hengstenberg on. Also cf. 
De "Wette on reference to Matt, xxvii. 4, 6. 

Psalms xlv., Ixxxix., ex. 4. 

Isaiah liii. Cf. Dr. ISToyes' Introduction to Theo- 



THE ATONEMENT. 209 

We submit that the ideas of sin, as 
brought out in the Unitarian statements 
on this and other subjects, as they have 
reference to an atonement through Christ, 
are pantheistic. 

As is eminently evident, and as for the 
must part admitted, Unitarian ideas of 
the atonement differ as the man Christ 
takes an Arian, Sabellian, or Humanita- 
rian character. There is, indeed, no view 
of the atonement, as given by this school, 

logical Essays with Delitzsch. Also, Dr. Noyes' He- 
brew Prophets. 

Rom. iii. 23-26. Cf..Whedon on. 

Rom. v. 6-11. 

Rom. viii. 3. 

Rom. v. 12. 

Rom. xii. 19, xix. 9. Of. Meyer on. 

1 Cor. i. 1, 3. 

1 Cor. vi. 20. Cf. Olnhausen on. 

1 Cor. xv. 3. Cf. Bellows' Re-statements, p, 303. 

1 Cor. xv. 45. 

2 Cor. v. 11-21. 
Gal. i. 4. 

Gal. ii. 20-22. Cf. Jowett on. 
Gal. iii. 13. 
Gal. iv. 3-7. 

Eph. iv. 18; Heb. i. 1-14. Cf. Smeaton, the Apos- 
tle's Doctrine of the Atonement. 
Etc. 



210 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

which does not depend on one of these 
views of Jesus. 1 

We submit that since all of these views 
result in Pantheism, the doctrine of the 
Atonement, as taright by the Unitarian 
Church, leads to Pantheism. 

1. The Sabellian view, 2 as first enun- 
ciated, or as cast in the form of the 
"Logos-theory ," leads to Pantheism, since 
— (a.) It denies the personality of Jesus, 
thus breaking in upon the proper idea 
of personality, as of consequence. (6.) 
There is no reason for thinking God con- 
fined to a trinal modalism, nor does it 
leave any reason for not carrying its phi- 
losophy further, and calling all things 
the manifestation of God under all cir- 
cumstances. 

1 Socinus, Catech. Eacov., pp. 45, 145. 

Brevis Inst., p. 654. 

Osterodt, Unterr., c. 6, p. 48. 

Also, Cat. Kacov., pp. 144-15(5. 

Winer's Confessions of Christendom, pp. 115, 116, 
135. 

Schaff's Creeds of Christendom, vol. ii., p. 398. 

2 Dr. J. E. Dorner's " The Person of Christ," 272, 
274, ff. Div. 11, vol. ii, pp. 15, 227, 304, 477. 



THE ATONEMENT. 211 

2. The Arian view 1 leads to Pantheism, 
since (a) either &eoz and Oso^ 2 are iden- 
tical, or there is an apotheosis of some- 
thing ; and this identit}^ is denied, and 
since (6) the granting of superiority to 
Jesus on the ground of Pre-existeuce, as 
another manifestation of God, has simply 
added another category to the idea that 
God is manifested in various degrees, 
thus adding 1 to the stock in trade of Pan- 
theism. 

3. The Humanitarian view leads to 
Pantheism, hy calling a being to whom 
credence is given, and who thus is al- 
lowed to identify himself with God in 
the most authoritative manner, and whose 
speech can not be understood but as the 
utterance of Jehovah, a man; thus iden- 
tifying mere human nature with the Di- 
vine. 

1 Schaflf's Creeds of Christendom, vol. ii., pp. 28, 
01 ; note 4 of appendix. 

2 Scbaff's Creeds of Christendom, vol. ii., pp. 22, 
23. Hodge's Systematic Theology, vol. i., p. 452. 



212 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED 



CHAPTER V. 

THE VIEWS OF DR. JAMES MARTINEAU. 

Modern Unitarianism is rapidly becoming more 
of a fatalism than the oldest Calvinism. 

Daniel. D. Whedon. 

"Das Kreuz zu Golgotha kann dich nicht von dem 

Bosen, 
Wenn es nicht auch in dir wird aufgerichtet, erlosen." 

But let us look at Unitarianism in its 
best clothes, as it presents itself on this 
subject. And if we are to believe what 
critical Unitarianism has so often declared, 
the collection of essays called " Studies 
of Christianity," 1 by Dr. James Martineau, 
is a representative volume. Criticism, 
without any Unitarian bias, would per- 
haps put it above this, as a work of liter- 
ature, and as a task of thought. But if 
Unitarianism is to be judged by its best 
efforts, as in all truth it needs to be, this 
volume must have a hearing as such. 
We are told in the introduction, which 
is written in the pleasant style of the 

1 Boston. American Unitarian Association. 1867. 



THE A TONE ME NT. 213 

editor of these essays, W. R. Alger, that 
" the history of his (Dr. Martineau's) 
mind has been a broadening track of 
light. And now the Association feel that 
they can not do a greater favor to the 
reading public, or better aid that cause 
of Liberal Christianity, whose servants 
they are, than by printing a collection of 
the later writings of this gifted man, 
whom they first introduced to American 
Unitarians a quarter of a century ago." 1 
The papers are a selection, and those are 
i^iven which " throw light on the true 
nature of Christianity," 2 and we are to 
take the volume as " fitted to meet the 
wants of the time by diffusing among 
ministers, students of divinity, and' the 
cultivated laity, a knowledge of the most 
advanced theological and religious 
thought yet attained," 3 and his u Endeav- 
ors After the Christian Life" as "by far 
the richest and noblest series of sermons 
in the English language." 4 

1 Introduction, p. vii. 

2 P. viii. 

3 P. viii. 

4 P. ix. 



214 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED 

With these ideas, which are about equal- 
ly just, we open at the essay, "Sin, what 
it is, what it is not" 1 whence we think a 
clear idea of the true nature of the atone- 
ment can he gained, if at all, since the 
problem of the eternities is human salva- 
tion from sin, and the decided cry of the 
race is, " Is there balm in Gilead ?"' which 
cry will not be silenced until, to use Dr. 
Martineau's words, "the. averted face of the 
Infinite has tarried around upon us again, 
and the pure eyes look into us, with a mild 
and loving gaze, which we can meet with 
answering glances, and feel that we are at 
one with the universe, and reconciled with 
God." 2 

Here, we think, as we touch it, is cer- 
tainly one of those out-croppings of the 
granite which underlies our human life. 
It is not a chemically-prepared rock, 
bnilded, atom to atom, in a theological 
laboratory. But it is natural, and owes 
itself to the chemistry of the greater la- 
boratory, in which the universe was 
thrown down. And, if we mistake not, 

1 Studies of Christianity, p. 466. 

2 Studies, p. 477. 



THE A TONE ME NT. 2 1 5 

the secret of sound theology is the reach- 
ing after and obtaining what conies into 
life from life ; the seeking and finding of 
what God has to savin his dogmatics of uni- 
versal fact — while every failure in specu- 
lation aud exegesis comes of taking life 
and things out of their own atmosphere. 
The " lily of the held," the crucifixion 
of Jesus, have one atmosphere of fact, 
and in that same Ideal-Realism must be 
interpreted, as the spirit of the New Tes- 
tament and of human life is one. Dr. 
Martineau is inviting us into this real 
life-air and being-air, as he says, of sin, 
that, "If there is anything within the 
compass of heaven and earth which we 
can be said to know for ourselves, and to 
have no need that another should tell us, 
it is the nature of sin; there is no arro- 
gance — there is only sorrowful confession 
— in protesting that this is a matter on 
which we can not be mistaken. It is the 
nearest of all things to us ; the shadow 
which follows us where we go, and stays 
with us when we sit ; the clinging pres- 
ence that penetrates the very folds of our 
nature, and is known only from within, 



216 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

where its fibers strike and draw their nu- 
triment. E"o external observer, though 
he have the divination of a prophet, or 
the glance of an archangel, can add one 
iota to our insight into this sad fact, un- 
less by sharpening our sensibility to feel 
and interpret it better for ourselves, or 
by any testimony, any miracle, take one 
line away of the handwriting of God 
that burns and flashes on the inner 
walls of the soul. Here at least our ap- 
prehensions are first-hand ; and to trust 
them, to cast out as Satan what tampers 
with them, or contradicts them, is not 
scepticism, but faith — not infidelity, but 
faithfulness to the ever-written, living 
word of God. What the finger of Heav- 
en has written, neither the tapestries of 
ancient theology, nor the varnish of new- 
est philosophy can permanently hide; 
the light is alive, and will eat through, 
clearing its everlasting warning and 
consuming our perishable work." 1 

But it is well-nigh impossible for Dr. 
Martineau to leave the matter here, and 
much more of a task is it for him to al- 

1 Studies, pp. 468, 469. 



THE ATONEMENT. 217 

low the soul to testily plainly, while re- 
moved to absolute impossibility is the 
admission of the soul's testimony on any 
such real life-basis, as he so clearly de- 
fines in the words which we have quoted. 

What difference does it give in result, 
whether we have an ideal treatment of 
the soul, or a transcendental treatment 
of what she says ? If Dr. Martineau 
treats the human spirit ever so kindly on 
first principles, and afterwards disregards 
her speech by a large use of. Idealism in 
interpretation, it is as if nothing had 
been said. It seems, indeed, like the 
bribing of a witness with flattery, that 
liberal discounting -may be made in the 
presence of the court. 

And, truly, Dr. Martineau may be said 
to be representative here. Unitarian lit- 
erature would have to be quoted almost 
entire, if we were thus compelled to 
prove, what is a most potent fact, that 
the staple of its theology is profession of 
respect and credence with reference to 
the soul. Oftentimes ridiculous and 
sounding like cant, yet for the most part 
eloquent and well written, the most splen- 



218 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

did professions appear in every volume 
as the utterance of this school of theo- 
logical speculation. Dr. Martineau gives 
his name and voice to this theme, and, 
with a genius for such effort, presents the 
reader with one of the best woven songs 
from these old sounds. How such songs 
are sung and the performance encored by 
the Unitarian press, we do not profess to 
understand, when, at the close, it is un- 
derstood that this same hero, who is sung 
about, is to be informed that nobody be- 
lieves what he has said or done. 

True respect for the human soul is re- 
spect for its testimony, and no clear idea 
of honor is that which repeats " Honor 
all men" and expects to distrust all men. 
The human soul needs credence vastly 
more than eulogy, and theology has 
reaped far richer harvests from, her fields 
of truth than from the songs which those, 
who do not reap, have sung. Gladly, 
and with the truth of innocence, does 
she. walk into such an air as that of these 
words of Dr. Mai'tineau, for it is the only 
natural one to her. And she has much 
to say ; much about sin. She does not 



THE ATONEMENT. 219 

care what her panegyrists say, but she 
wants to be heard and cares that people 
shall believe what she says. She expects, 
however, aud lias a right to do so, from 
such as Dr. Martineau, what a large and 
true soul will give, respectful belief of what 
she feels so keenly and confesses so truly. 
Dr. Martineau is indeed, so infinitely more 
faithful than his eulogists to what the 
soul says, that we feel him to have been 
sincere, even if he has been talking of 
the impossible. And when we treat of 
his words we feel very near to the posi- 
tions of orthodoxy, and to the press of 
the centuries to the Throne, crying: "Is 
there balm in Giiead?" 

But it is impossible for so consistent 
and devout a soul as this to adopt Uni- 
tarianism in any of its other phases, 
without even here being at the mercy of 
the spirit of Idealism which animates it, 
and without being also the advocate ot 
theories of sin and salvation possible only 
on pantheistic grounds. 

We need not to say to those who have 
accompanied us thus far, that this idea 
of sin is a negation of the ordinary Uui- 



220 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

tarian expression on the subject : " For 
myself," says Dr. Marti neau, " I can 
never sit at the feet of Jesus, and yield 
up a reverential heart to his great lessons 
without casting myself on the persuasion 
that God and evil are everlasting foes; 
that never and for no end did be create 
it; that his will is utterly against it, nor 
ever touches it but with annihilating 
force. Any other view appears to be in- 
jurious to the characteristic sentiments, 
and at variance with the distinguishing 
genius of Christian morality." 1 

But, as in the other case, what matters 
it if the Idealism come here or elsewhere. 
If it succeed in vitiating the whole si^- 
nificance of such a statement, by any 
means, it were as well that such a state- 
ment had not been made. A just view 
of Dr. Martineau's idea of sin as accepted 
in the light of these tw r o quotations will 
explain how a Unitarian, whose work is 
republished and praised by the American 
Unitarian Church, can safely make such 
statements as fundamental; that such 
ideas of sin, coupled with Unitarianism, 

1 Studies, p. xxxix. of Introduction. 



THE ATONEMENT. 221 

presuppose sufficient Idealism elsewhere 
in this system to render them either 
meaningless in and of themselves, or pow- 
erless as related to what follows. 

These, then, are the facts to which the 
moral nature calls the attention of one 
that hears the testimony of conscience. 
Sin is " the transgression of* the law." 
It has the three characteristics that Dr. 
Martineau mentions, 1 if no more. 

" It is no figure of speech," as he says, 
" to say that God is angry with the 
wicked every day," and is " of purer eyes 
than to "behold iniquity." 2 It is " unqual- 
ified opposition to his will, a literal ser- 
vice of the enemy." 3 

It is all that we have found sin to be, 
in scripture, and history, and all that in 
any other accounts, this trusted author- 
ity, " conscience," has called it. 

Now within the same volume in which 
Dr. Martineau has said that this, " our 
conscience, is the window of heaven 
through which we gaze on God ; and as 

1 Studies p. 470. 

2 Studies, Introduction, p. xxxvii. 

3 Ibid. 



222 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

the colors perpetually change his aspect 
changes too ; " l and in which he has 
quite liberally given a resume of what 
conscience says, while he thus admits 
that conscience cries for help, that sin is 
an abhorrence to God, that it separates 
the sinner from God, he vitiates all and 
destroys the force of all that this is or can 
be, as related to the other significant facts 
of the universe, by preaching what is of 
another spirit and result : " Christianity 

. . . is a religion eminently natural, 
eradicating no indigenous affections of 
our mind, distorting no primitive moral 
sentiment ; but simply 2 consecrating the 
obligation proper to our nature, and tak- 
ing up with a divine voice the whispers, 
scarce articulate before, of the conscience 
within us." 3 

But this does not satisfy; and is, in 
fact, only an illusion. 

Suppose it is " natural," and " emi- 
nently natural," I need what I have not, 
and if Christianity is simply " natural," 

1 Studies, Introduction, p. xxxvi. 

2 The italics are ours. 

3 Studies, Introduction, p. xxxix. 



THE ATONEMENT. 223 

and only does what Dr. Martineau defin- 
itely asserts is her work, I need some- 
thing else, because I may have it, and yet 
be estranged from God. Conscience cries 
to snch preaching, in the name of God, 
to whom she is said to be related, and on 
the ground of such loftily proclaimed re- 
spect : "Hear me for my cause." It 
makes no difference whether it " eradi- 
cates indigenous affections," or not. This 
is not the question which engages me now. 
I have been made sensible that " God is 
angry." As you say, the " face of the 
Infinite" is "averted." I need no more 
"indigenous affections," but salvation 
from sin. I know that Christianity "dis- 
torts" not, and that it " consecrates obli- 
gations ;" but I am confident I have 
broken an obligation, and what now? 
It is not a question of this sort; I must 
have salvation. I have a hope that if I 
can get something to still this storm, if 
some Christ will say to this tempest, " Be 
still," then, Dr. Martineau, I have no 
doubt but that I shall find that it takes 
" up with a divine voice the whispers, 
scarce articulate before, of the conscience 



224 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

within." I can not hear the whispers 
now; I can hear nothing hut the storm. 
" Is there halm in Gilead ?" 

Again, while Calvinism's $.yq points 
are of little account to him, he has fL\e 
points which seem to define his faith, and 
give system to his belief. Among them, 
" in the first place," as he says, " We 
have faith in the Moral Perceptions of 
man." l We might also quote other such 
passages of his enthusiastic recommenda- 
tion of conscience, as these: "On this 
no suspicion is to be cast; no 
lamentation over its fallibility ; no hint 
of possible delusion is to pass by un re- 
buked. It is worthy of absolute reliance, 
as the authoritative oracle of our nature, 
supreme over all its faculties, entitled 
to use sense, memory, understanding, to 
register its decrees, without a moment's 
license to dispute them." 2 

" Whatever else may move, here, in 
creation's center of gravity, we take our 
everlasting stand. Whatever else may be 
doubtful, these (the moral perceptions) 

1 Studies, ' : Five Points of Christian Faith/' p. 179. 

2 Studies, p. 181. 



THE ATONEMENT. 225 

are to be simply trusted." " They are to 
be assumed by us as the fixed station, the 
grand heliocentric position whence our 
survey of the spiritual universe must be 
made, and our system of religion con- 
structed." l 

But what is all this worth if she lies? 
And if she does not lie, why seek to dis- 
believe her ? Indeed, it may be said, no 
one does disbelieve. Then, we ask, why 
is Unitarian theology continually saying 
that she ought not to have, can not have, 
what she says she must have, and what, 
since she goes upon Dr. Marti neau's sec- 
ond of his u Five Points,"—' 4 the Moral 
Perfection of God" — is for her? 

This is just the case. We believe her 
about sin. So we find her not at one with 
God. We believe that she must be at 
one, else we disbelieve what she says. 
We believe, for the same reason, that she 
has all that she can do to meet present 
duty and obligation. We believe, then, 
that she must have help, foreign to her 
own strength and effort. We may say 
the only trouble is the sins of the past, 

- Studies, p. 181. 



226 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

unremitted, or existing only as positive 
evil. Now, conscience demands that these 
should be taken away, met somehow by 
good, that there should be a substitution 
there. She demands some intervention of 
Good in order to at-one-ment with God. 
In short, conscience demands ^.vicarious 
at-one-ment. These are the demands 
of those " moral perceptions " of which 
Dr. Marti neau so truthfully speaks. 

Bat Dr. Martineau says: "Moral rela- 
tions, by their very nature, exclude all 
vicarious agency." 1 " I know of no re- 
mission of sins, nor would Christians 
have retained so heathenish a notion, had 
they not frightfully exaggerated in the 
first instance the retributions of God." 2 
" Nowhere in scripture do we meet with 
anything corresponding with the pre- 
vailing notions of vicarious redemption ; 
everywhere, and most emphatically in the 
personal instruction of our Lord, do we 
find a doctrine of forgiveness, and an idea 
of salvation utterly inconsistent with it." 3 

1 Studies, p. 475. 

2 Studies, p. 477. 

3 Studies, p. 141. 



THE ATONEMENT. 227 

One wonders bow can these things be; 
and is liable, out of respect to Dr. Mar- 
tineau, to say that he must think Chris- 
tianity not fitted to all the demands of 
conscience. But hundreds of eloquent 
passages we have marked convince us 
that this is not true. Is he, then, to deny 
conscience as a witness ? For, certainly, 
if the "moral perceptions" are to be be- 
lieved, if we say that they testify truly, 
and if we are to believe that the God of 
the universe has that to supply it — in 
other words, if we believe two of Dr. 
Martineau's "Five Points," the faithful- 
ness of conscience and the perfection of 
God — there can be no difficulty. But 
Dr. Martineau says there is no " vicarious 
satisfaction;" and yet that is what the 
conscience needs, and this conscience dis- 
tinctly declares for a " vicarious satisfac- 
tion" and "substitution." 

Now we have too great faith in the 
fidelity of Dr.. Martineau as a thinker, to 
believe he could break out anywhere by 
stealth or intentionally. He must get 
out by a bad philosophy, if at all. And, 
indeed, our speculation is philosophical 



228 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

history. It is a free use of the spirit of 
Unitarian theology — Idealism — which 
applied to conscience and its testimony, 
or, as we might show, to the ideas of sin, 
God, and the universe, which gives Dr. 
Martineau egress to the world as an 
opponent to the " vicarious satisfac- 
tion." 

We need not stop to prove its relation 
to Pantheism, and, in our own words. We 
need only let Dr. Martineau add this part 
of the discussion, as he again preaches 
Unitarian ism, it may be — Idealism it is — 
in the form and almost in the terminol- 
ogy of Pantheism : " We must surrender 
ourselves to him without terms." l " The 
functions of a healthy body go on, not by 
the knowledge of physiology, but by the 
instinctive vigor of nature; and you will 
no more brace the spiritual faculties to 
noble energy and true life by study of 
the uses of every feeling than you can 
train an athlete for the race by lectures 
on every muscle of the limb. The mind 
is not voluntarily active in the acquisi- 
tion of any great idea, any new inspira- 

1 Studies, Introduction, p xli. 



THE ATONEMENT: 229 

tion of faith, but passive — fixed on the 
object which has dawned upon it aud 
filled it with fresh light." l This is but 
one side of this teaching", and is offered 
as such. We think after such preaching, 
one could not ask a fitter hymn than 
this : 

"Onward and on, the eternal Pan, 
"Who layeth the world's incessant plan, 
Halteth never in one shape, 
But forever doth escape, 
Like wave or flame, into new forms, 
Of gem, and air, of plants, and worms. 
I, that to-day am a pine, 
Yesterday was a bundle of grass. 
He is free and libertine, 
Pouring of his power the wine 
To every age, to every race ; 
Unto every race and age, 
He emptieth the beverage ; 
Unto eacli arid unto all, 
Maker and original. 
The world is the ring of his spella, 
And the play of his miracles. 
As he yiveth all to drink, 
Thus or thus they are and think. 
He glvcth little or giveth much 
To make them several or such. 
With one drop sheds form and) feature ', 
With the second a special nature; 

1 Studies, Introduction, p. xliv. 



230 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

The third adds heaf.s indidgent spark ; 
The fourth gives light, which eats the dark; 
Unto the fifth himself he flings, 
And conscious Law is King of Kings." 1 

1 Poems, "Wood-Notes," Kalph Waldo Emerson, 
p. 169. 



THE ATONEMENT. 231 



CHAPTER VI. 

TRINITARIAN IDEALISM — THE CONSEQUENCES OP 
THESE IDEAS OE SIN. 

" The brevity of his life must have some meaning." 

Parker. 

So much for self-denominated Unitari- 
anism. Opposed to the orthodox idea 
of the atonement, is a notion of the work 
of Jesus Christ, which bears just this re- 
lationship to the ideas of TTnitarianism 
on the subject : that it denies the vi- 
carious phase of Christ's work, and gives 
the whole life and death of our Lord an 
influential agency such as is defined by 
the Unitarian school of theology. 

We have no space for a critical history 
of these views. They are, too, quite as 
well known as any of the expressions of 
this spirit. Horace Bushnell, in our own 
country, and Dr. John Young, of Scot- 
land, in the east, have a wing of their 
own ; and though the} 7 stand in clear-cut 
contrast with the views of less sober and 



232 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

ethical natures, these eloquent and tender 
expressions are animated with Idealism, 
and form part of its literature. We make 
this assertion, here, notwithstanding the 
fact of professed Trinitarianism, because 
of the fact that such views of sin, God, 
the statements of conscience, the expres- 
sions of Jesus, and the necessities of the 
human family seem to us the same as 
those of professed Unitarianism, and 
above all because in the characteristic un- 
dertaking of Jesus Christ , in the work for 
which He came, in the single mighty and 
suggestive act of that wonderful life, Jesus 
has no use for His Deity, and thus because 
the universe has no unused energy, we are, 
led to regard Him as a Unitarian Christ. 

While, for these abundant avowals of 
Trinitarianism which come with them, 
we have respect, there are theories of the 
atonement obtaining in this country and 
Europe, unlike Mr. Jowett's, praised and 
paraded by Unitarian literature, but like 
those of Bushnell.and Young, founded 
on the same principles, reducible to the 
same general propositions, without mean- 
ing, except with the same terminology, 



THE ATONEMENT. 233 

and used with the same destructive effect 
on other doctrinal positions. Called by 
various names, they have a common ori- 
gin, and accomplish a common end. 

Coleridge needs no re-statement, and 
certainly those who have retailed his 
shining thought do not need mention 
and criticism. Sufficient use of the works 
of Maurice, Kingsley, Robertson, Davies, 
Stanley, and Brooke, as the finest ex- 
pression of the spirit of Idealism, has 
been made to justify the assertion that 
the views they hold of the Atonement do 
not acquire such realness by contact with 
their professed Trinitarianism, that they 
need a new classification or treatment. 

In general proposition we submit, as 
already proved by the fact of the doc- 
trinal position of these names and their 
followers, and the showing which has 
been made of the necessary route to such 
a position, that the spirit of Idealism is 
as manifest here as in Unitarianism itself, 
and that if Idealism is reducible once to 
Pantheism, it is always. 

Again, if such ideas of sin, when they 
prevail in the Unitarian Church, are 



234 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

pantheistic, they are always pantheistic. 
Coleridge could not, neither can his latest 
disciple, get a scriptural idea of sin from 
an un scriptural idea of God as a Bight- 
ous Personality. 1 

Nor can the idea of sin, as we find it 
in Maurice, who was so largely indebted 
to this philosopher, or in the writings 
of Charles Kingsley, who sets criticism 
aghast by his large introduction of Cole- 
ridgian philosophy in " Alexandria and 
Her Schools," be reconciled to a Theism 
like that of Conscience and the Bible. 
Nothing is so plain to the readers of Mr. 
Davies, or even of Mr. Jowett, as that the 

1 Coleridge, Aids to Keflection, p. 180. 

Coleridge, Confession of Faith. 

Maurice, Theological Essays, London, 2d ed., pp. 
149, 210. 

Hare, J. C, Sermons on the Law of Self-sacrifice, 
and The Unity of The Church. 

Kingsley, Charles, Sermons on National Subjects, 
1st series, p. 14. 

Stanley, A. P., The Epistles of St. Paul to the Cor- 
inthians. 2 vols. 

Jowett, Benj., The Epistles of St. Paul to the Thes- 
salonians, Galatians,.etc, 2 vols. 

Davies, St. Paul and Modern Thought, Cambridge, 
1856. 



THE ATONEMENT. 235 

latter's pantheistic idea of sin is the same 
philosophy which wrought the former's 
transcendental notion of the fact. And 
Mr. Jowett, as an orthodox believer, is 
enigmatic until lie buries his orthodoxy, 
with all the ideas of sin and a personal 
God it has cherished, in his essay, " Pre- 
destination and Free-will." 

We submit that the idea of sin is not 
to be thought of as independent of the 
righteousness of God. Coleridge and his 
followers have so infringed upon this fun- 
damental idea that their idea of sin, what- 
ever else may be said of it, is possible 
only in Pantheism. Maurice has no hes- 
itation in defining the source of his ideas 
on conscience and sin as the Pantheism 
of the German schools. And Kingsley, 
and Mr. Davies, as the reviewer of Mr. 
Jowett, vie with each other in uncon- 
sciously identifying this Neo-Piatonism 
with the same. 

Good and evil are one in God to Mr. 
Jowett. God is in all the activity of the 
race. He says, " these pairs of opposites, 
God and man, mind and matter, soul and 
body, pass into one another, and are lost 



236 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

in the idea of a communion of the Cre- 
ator with His creatures." 1 

It will "be said, no one believes this. 
Yet does not Dr. Bushnell, by the grant 
of remission of sins without any offset to 
sin or reference to the necessities of God's 
government, grant that sin is, after all, 
not much of a fact, and, indeed, so in- 
considerable a fact, as that with it or 
without it the universe gets on about the 
same? Does not Dr. Bushnell justify in 
the face of sin ? And can sin be anything 
if this is sound Theism ? And in all this, 
is there not an impersonal God more 
manifest than a personal one, as, indeed, 
these ideas of sin which come of neces- 
sity from his ideas of righteousness, re- 
mission of sin, and the atonement as a 
whole, are pantheistic? 

We do think that on far more import- 
ant grounds than this, Dr. Bushnell 
and those Avho either by relationship of 
their views on this subject, or by disci- 
pleship, are in sympathy with his idea, 
have failed of avoiding Pantheism. In- 
deed, we do not know that they tried to 

1 Vol. ii. pp. 504, 505. 



THE ATONEMENT. 237 

avoid it, but such works as " Kature and 
the Supernatural," and their teachings, 
lead us to regard their authors as at least 
considering themselves under a different 
category from that under which the con- 
fessed students of Schleiermacher and 
other Pantheologists x must walk. In 
the work " Our Lord's Doctrine of the 
Atonement," for which, with all the 
venial errors of what must be called New 
Collegeism (since only Dr. Cunningham, 
Dr. Banner man, Dr. Buchanan, and the 
rest of the faculty of the E"ew College, 
Edinburgh, seem to proceed with the 
same principles), a sound theology 
should be grateful : it is asserted in the 
text, that " so close is the connection be- 
tween the doctrine of the atonement and 
that of Christ's Deity, that they are al- 
ways found, as history shows, to be either 
received together or denied together." 

While with a broad significance this is 
true, yet if we are to make such distinc- 
tions as lead Dr. Smeaton to mention 
"the true church," we can have but one 

1 Wiitke, Christian Ethics. Prof. Lacroix' Trans- 
lation, vol. i. pp. 290, 317. 



238 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

doctrine of the atonement, and since the 
several ideas of the atonement are so rad- 
ically at variance that each excludes the 
other, on a close statement of dogmatic 
history, this is not true. 

One who has read the beautiful ninth 
chapter of " Nature and the Supernatu- 
ral" and that author's sermon on "The 
Christian Trinitv, a Practical Truth," 
u The Christ of History," and passages 
from Stanley, Robertson, and Prof. Jow- 
ett, can do little but wonder at Horace 
Bushnell on the " Vicarious Sacrifice," 
with the large literature on the subject 
coming from these and other sources. Dr. 
Bushnell gave us the record of a " new and 
unexpected arrival of light" in "For- 
giveness and Law,''" but we have no such 
chronicle from these who are named 
with him. 

Catechised, the broadest of the Broad 
Church would refuse the name of Unita- 
rian, in the sense of denying the Deity 
of Jesus, while a so-called purchasing 
atonement would be upbraided. These 
facts are obvious to Prof. Smeaton, and 
this statement, to which we have called 



THE ATONEMENT. 239 

attention, is only the protest of a keen- 
eyed spirit against the introduction of 
Idealism in theology. 

What are these principles, and what 
are their fruit ? We have seen them in 
various forms, and we assert that here 
their fruit is Pantheism. 

If Jesus were Divine, it were at least 
well, and none who claim it deny that 
the plea of the universe makes it a neces- 
sity. Indeed, no one who postulates the 
Deity of Jesus puts it on other grounds, 
unless that the ground of God's existence 
must be in Himself. We are left, in either 
case, with a Divine Jesus, whose existence 
as such adds to the subsistency of the 
universe. As a matter of fact, Trinita- 
rians, who oppose the orthodox view of 
the atonement, assert the necessity of a 
Divine Jesus, in this work, and seeiug it 
is the act for which He came, it is justly 
expected that what removes Him in na- 
ture from men shall here be of positive 
account. 

But what sort of an atonement with 
God does Jesus give to men ? What in 
it, as a thing, as made by Christ, what 



240 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

of it, as accomplished byHim, what about 
it, as the atonement is represented by 
this school of thought, that demands 
Christ the Divine, or in which Deity ap- 
pears at all? 

It is a spectacle — the death— scene — 
much like the death of a hero. It awes. 
It opens up the mind's sources of sympa- 
thy. The tear-glands are melted. It is 
an exhibit of something so wonderfully 
great that it overwhelms the soul. It is 
" the greatest moral act ever done in the 
world." 1 " The facts are impressive ; the 
person is clad in wonderful dignity and 
beauty. The agony is eloquent of love, 
and the cross is a very shocking murder 
triumphantly met; and if then the ques- 
tion rises : how are we to use such a his- 
tory so as to be reconciled by it ? we 
hardly know in which way to begin. 
How shall we come unto God by the help 
of this martyrdom? How shall we turn 
it, or turn ourselves under it, so as to be 
justified and set at peace with God? 
Plainly there is a want here ; and this 
want is met in giving a thought-form to 

1 Jowett, Epistle of St. Paul, p. 477. 



THE ATONEMENT. 241 

the facts which are not in the facts them- 
selves." x " The sacrifice was not offered 
by men to God, hnt was made by God for 
men, and for sin,in order that sin might be 
forever put down and rooted out of human 
nature. This stupendous act of divine 
sacrifice was God's method of conquer- 
ing the human heart, and of subduing a 
revolted world, and attaching it to His 
Throne — pure love — self-sacrificing love 
— crucified dying love." 2 

It is, or ought to be, a wonderfully 
tragic thing, according to Dr. Bushnell. 
He says : " Insipid, uneventful, flat, with 
no great sentiments in it, no heroic side 
in duty, nothing heroic anywhere, noth- 
ing to condemn that touches us, nothing 
to forgive because we are not touched — 
why, such a world would even die of in- 
anity. K"o ; let us have tragedy, and a 
strong, large mixture of it. 3 He then 
adds rejoicingly, " Beheld in its outward 
human incidents, it (the life and death of 

1 Bushnell, The Vicarious Sacrifice, p. 533. 

2 John Young, L.L.D., Life and Light of Men, p. 
301. 

3 Forgiveness and Law, p. 50. 



242 METAMORPHOSES OF A GREED. 

Jesus) is the tragedy of the love of 
God." 1 

We are told that in all this, that God 
is unchanged. His fatherhood is just dis- 
closed. His love to men is, by this means, 
revealed. But it is a " Divine Sacrifice " 
of what ? Of Jesus as God in any sense ? 
Yes. But why not of a man ? Why not 
of Socrates, such as Dr.. Young conceives 
him to have been — or of Pythagoras? 
And why not say an atonement or even 
the atonement came by the hand and life 
of some one of the apostles, since, as 
hinted by Prof. Smeaton, "they taught 
that ' God is Love,' and died martyr- 
deaths in consequence of this testi- 
mony ? " 2 With such circumstances, sup- 
pose that Pythagoras had been crucified 
— give him all these potencies to send the 
chronicle of his fate to the remotest ages 
— all these opportunities to perpetuate 
himself as a figure of noble martyrdom — 
would not this have done ?' And why not 
put John on the cross instead of Christ 

1 Forgiveness and Law, p. 60. 

2 Our Lord's Doctrine, of the Atonement, Note M, 
pages 413, 495, 496. 



TEE ATONEMENT. 243 

to accomplish the atonement? Suppose 
Jesus to have been merely man, after all, 
would not the tragedy have accomplished 
all? To all of these, in the name of a 
"Divine Sacrifice," and their Trinitarian- 
ism, they say, no. 

Certainly, we reply, the death of Pyth- 
agoras would have been "spectacular; " 
that of Socrates, " impressive ; " that of 
Jesus, as a man, "grand and awful." 
And since we do not want to change God, 
but to produce an effect on people's feel- 
ings, either of these is sufficient. E"ot so, for 
we want an " overwhelming spectacle." l 

Then it is not because these do not 
make spectacles that they are insufficient, 
but of either there is not enough of a spec- 
tacle. In kind, then, there is nothing 
wanting. All that is needed, accordingly, 
is a greater degree of the same, a larger 
quantity of the same quality as embodied. 

1 If we look at the atonement as the expression of 
the Divine sympathy, we will find use for Dr. Bush- 
nell's statement of this phase of it, when he says : 
u Mere sympathy, hs we commonly speak, is no great 
power ; it must be somehow a tremendous sympathy, 
to have the true divine efficacy.'' Forgiveness and 
Law, p. 204. 



244 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

Now, if the death of Jesus, either as the 
expression of his life or otherwise, makes 
the atonement for sin, and all we need 
in such, an atonement is more of the same 
influence as would proceed from the life 
and passion of Socrates or John, we are 
brought to this — that in the fact of the 
Deity of Jesus lay this power. But this 
power is only more power of the same 
sort as that of Socrates, according to 
these descriptive sketches. Now, if the 
power of Socrates and Jesus are the same 
in quality, while we still contend for the 
the proper Divinity of our Lord, we are 
reduced to Pantheism — the identification 
of the human and the Divine ; the cruci- 
fixion moment is henceforth the moment 
of the apotheosis of human nature, while 
God came, then, to his grandest moment 
of self-consciousness. So it is that the 
denial of expiatory agency and the de- 
nial of the Deity of our Lord walk hand 
in hand to the same goal. 

Pantheism and negative ideas of sin 
are related as whole and part. As a 
matter of fact the history and literature 
of Pantheism have been especially full at 



THE ATONEMENT. 245 

this point. And it would be a pleasant 
task to place side by side the utterances 
of the most authentic Pantheism and the 
large extracts a short acquaintance has 
prepared for this purpose from present 
day, and, at this time, representative Un- 
itarianism. Oar space forbids this and 
allows only two or three general state- 
ments. 

And first, Eeason, human history, the 
Redeemer from sin, and God the Father 
have a decided utterance with the best 
expression of Orthodoxy on the subject 
that "the idea of Sin can only exist where 
a Divine rule of life is recognized." 1 
This Divine rule of life is the moral law. 

" But if we could understand the true 
nature of sin, we must not stop at mere 
law. We must, first of all, inquire what 
is the origin of law and the end it has in 
view, for law does not appoint itself, but 
must be appointed. Behind every law 
there is a life of which it is the expres- 

VPaul. Carl Ulimann. The Sinlessness of Jesus, 
p. 95 (Clark's edition), from which we prefer to quote 
rather than seek to formulate in our own phrase, the 
high water-mark of Christian doctrine on this subject. 



246 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

sion, and a power of which it is the com- 
mand. In the case of the moral law, the 
life it expresses can not be merely the 
life of nature, nor the power by which it 
is enforced merely the power of nature. 
The moral, from its very nature, trans- 
cends the merely natural. The unity of 
law has for its foundation the unity of a 
consciousness from which it proceeds, and 
only a personal will can address itself to 
our will with the command, Thou shalt ! 
There must then be a personal, conscious, 
absolutely moral life, exalted above na- 
ture, from which the law springs." l 

Since " conscience is not the source of 
moral principles, but the regulator of moral 
action," besides, since "the material of 
which it is composed is not absolutely 
and under all circumstances, the same, 
nor derived from its own resources, but 
rather furnished from a source external 
to itself, and hence differing according to 
the measure of religious development," 
since " it is not the primary function of 
conscience to lay down a moral law but 
to bear its emphatic testimony thereto in 

1 Sinlessness, p. 23. 



THE ATONEMENT. 247 

special cases, by urgent exhortation to 
that which is lawful, by stern warning 
against its opposite, and by direct relation 
against all infraction," since, " moreover, 
it is essential to conscience, that its com- 
mands and prohibitions should be abso- 
lute, that its voice should assert its au- 
thority as a voice of God, . . . and . 
all opposition thereto should be perceived 
to be not merely man's opposition to his 
own better nature, not merely an injury 
done to himself, but a violation of the 
Divine order, and a resistance to God 
himself," 1 — since a Personal God is postu- 
lated — since the moral law is necessarily 
derived from a personal Being, even from 
Him who created and governs the uni- 
verse, then is the source of the moral law 
none other than the living, the personal 
God." 2 

But the Unitarian ideas of sin, to which 
we have called attention, are not possible 
in such a state of facts, as influencing 

1 Sinlessness, p. 24. 

Julius Miiller, Lehre Von d' Siinde ii. ch. 3. 
Liddon, Some Elements of Eeligion, pp. 154, 155. 
2 Sinlessness, p. 25. 



248 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

sin. And the ideas we have thus looked 
at, from this literature, do not agree with 
their constituent elements. Hence, he- 
cause they are impossible on the score 
of a living and personal God, they can 
only be possible on the score of an imper- 
sonal God, which is but another name for 
the universe, and which, however much 
he may " tend to personality," is the first 
postulate and the highest assertion of 
Pantheism. 1 

Secondly (a), " the proper seat of sin is 
the will," 2 and of course it is impossible 
except to a personality. All Unitarian 
translations give " Be ye holy for I am 
holy," and thus is a reason assigned, as 
well as a demand made. The only reason 
seems to lie in the fundamental philo- 

1 Van Oosterzee, Christain Dogmatics, vol. ii. p. 
396. 

2 Compare Bibliolheca Sacra, vol. v. pp. 499, 512. 
Bibliotheca Sacra, vol. vi. pp. 247, 798. 
Van Oosterzee' s Dogmatics, vol. ii. p. 392, et seq. 
Wiitke's Christian Ethics, vol. ii. p. 10. 
M tiller's Lehre V-d-Siinde, p. 166. 
Hodge T s Sys. Theology, vol. ii. ch. v. 
Thompson's Theology of N. Testament, pp. 40, 83. 
Van Oosterzee's Theology of N. Testament, pp. 
94, 385. 



THE ATONEMENT. 249 

soph erne — the unity of the universe. But, 
as we think, universal unity is a depen- 
dent existence, on the concurrence of Free 
Divine Personality, and Free Human Per- 
sonality. "All have sinned," 1 say the 
Unitarian translations. Hence all have 
been opponents of the unity of the uni- 
verse which primarily is of God, and de- 
pendent upon Him. All have, in other 
words, set up their wills against God's 
will. Sin in one will against holiness in 
the other! One product of personality 
against another product of personality ! 

Scripture of all sorts cries for expia- 
tion. Unitarianism denies the possibility 
of such expiation, and hence the exist- 
ence of expiation in this universal unity- 
So, since there must be a break in the 
idea of sin and hence in personality, or 
an expiation, and "there is no expiation," 
we have a break in personality. There 
is no personality beneath the Unitarian 
idea of sin, to whose literature we have 
referred. And if man is not personal in 

1 Hedge's Primeval World of Hebrew Tradition, p. 
36, et seq. 



250 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

sin*, God is not personal in holiness, 1 
thus leaving us with an impersonal God, 
which, however much he may be " Ordo 
Ordinaus," is the first postulate and the 
highest assertion of Pantheism. 

(b.) We have heard that " sin is natu- 
ral," and that "it is as much a part of the 
universe as the night is of the twenty- 
four hours." As sure as God, as Infinite, 
Free, and Rational Personality, exists 
and rules, sin is unnatural. For, by the 
nature of things, unless He can not will, 
sin is opposed to His will ; unless He can 
not think, is sin eternally opposed to His 
thought. And as truly as God can feel, 
is the transgressing of men opposed to 
the infinite feeling. We are left just 
here : either sin is unnatural and God is 
personal, or sin is natural and God is im- 
personal. 

The goal of man is taken away as soon 
as the personal God departs ; and con- 
versely, the personal God 2 departs as the 

1 Delitzsch, Biblical Psychology iv. i. 

2 Compare Liddon's Some Elements of Eeligion, 
p. 63. 

Van Oosterzee's Christian Dogmatism, pp. 245, 
253, vol. i. 



THE ATONEMENT. 251 

goal of man is taken away. Now how 
is the goal taken ? Truly, if we are to 
believe the conscience, the Bible, and the 
Universe, we are to accept the moral life 
as this goal. 1 But we are told that sin is 
right enough in its genesis, purpose, and 
end, while conscience lashes our soul 
with an agony, the universe about us 
seems a hell, and Scripture stretches over 
our head the curses of the law. Now, if 
sin is natural, this is no moral govern- 
ment, and God is no moral governor; so 
that "Be ye holy, for 1 am holy" is im- 
possible, and if we are to believe what 
Dr. Martineau says, that "there is no 
possibility of moral character unless on 
the moral character of God," 2 there is no 
moral character at all. 

But it appears that there is something 

Bowen's Metaphysics and Ethics, p. 321 (Bos- 
ton ed.) 

Wutke's Christian Ethics, Lacroix, vol. ii. p. 276. 
Pantheism and the Christian Faith, p. 64 et seq. 

1 See, for sake of clearest statement — 

"Wutke, -\ 

Martensen, j 

-r T -rr i r Christian Ethics. 

Von Harless, 

Gregory, J 

2 Hours of Thought with Sacred Things, 1876. 



252 METAMORPHOSES OF A GREED. 

that Dr. Marti neau calls moral character. 
It must, therefore, be this natural life he 
speaks of, which comes of Christianity, a 
religion " eminently natural," leaving us 
just where we were with the most radical 
Unitarian ism, and in spite of Dr. Marti - 
neau's famous word about sin, quoted in 
another place — with a God whose finer 
lineaments we find in the gospel of Pan- 
theism. 1 

1 Compare Dr. Hedge's Essay, "Dualism and Op- 
timism," with its marvelous "fast and loose" play- 
ing ; the saying that, " Either there is no God such 
as we figure him, or there is no evil. Believing in a 
God on the strength of his idea'in my mind, inde- 
pendently of the argument from Nature, I say there 
is no evil." And the assertions that, "All the dark- 
ness of ' Life' is indispensable to constitute its bright 
side;" "The time will never come when evil shall 
wholly cease from the earth," with a larger gener- 
alization as set forth by Dorner, "The Person of 
Christ," note DDDD to p. 224 of div. i. vol. i. p. 
250, Ibid, and by Liddon, Some Elements, p. 150. 



PART in. 

THE TESTIMONY OF POETRY. 
CHRISTIAN THEISM. 



"Charming did much to encourage the Trancendentalists in 
their search for truth, and he gladly attended private conferences 
at which they predominated; and he held these sometimes at his own 
house. The last time that I remember seeing him was at one of 
these meetings in the parlor of his worthy parishioner, Jonathan 
Phillips, at the Tremont House, Boston; and I can recall the fervor 
with which he there argued against the Pantheist theory, with its 
fatalism and its denial of the rise of evil in perverse will, and. its 
treatment of evil as merely the absence of good.'''' — Samuel OS- 
GOOD. 



" The right of judging if a doctrine be scriptural depends upon 
the capacity to discern if scripture itself be reasonable. So that 
the Bible itself is subject to the ideas which the Bible is sup- 
posed to embody. It is of no consequence how far Criticism may 
go in this direction after Reason has assumed her right. She, her- 
self alone, can regulate the extent of her applicability. This is 
legitimate Unitarianism, and it is also Transcendentalism prop- 
esly defined, Thus there arose a new school of Unitarianism. " — 
John Weiss. 



" Ore the somewhat stunted stock of Unitarianism— whose char- 
acteristic dogma was trust in individual reason as correlative to 
Supreme Wisdom— had been grafted German Idealism, as taught by 
masters of most various schools — by Kant and Jacobi, Fichte and 
Novaiis, Schelling and Hegel, Schleiermacher and DeWctte ; by 
Madame De Stael, Cousin, Coleridge, and Cartyle ; and the result 
teas a vague yet exalted conception of the God-like nature of the 
human spirit. "—William H. Changing. 



"Every Theist who is an Idealist, is also a Pantheist to this 
extent. 

"It is but the combination of the two principles of Theism and 
Idealism. 

" In its positive aspects, as recognizing the immanence of God 
in Nature, and affirming them to be the real substratum and ground 
of the phenomenal world, Pantheism is not irreconcilable with 
Theism— in fact coincides with the Theism of Theistic Idealists.'''' 
Frederic Henry Hedge. 



" The meanest and worst is as dear to God as the One we call His 
only begotten. 

"Jesus is of no other order nor a class all by himself, but the 
supreme instance thus far, in the verdict of history, of this com- 
mon lijc with Deity. 

" Nothing actual in Jesus that is not possible in you and in the 
feeblest babe in the crib. 

" God, who is my cause, is my causeway. Prayer is his inhala- 
tion and exhalation in my breast. 

" There is no such thing as a thing, but everything is a part of 
something and of everything else. 

" No Nature distinct from God. 

"Matter is the mind's decayed self, buried J or a while and 
awaiting a resurrection. 

"A good editor tells me my God is Brahma. 

" J never have been able to pronounce his name.' n — CYRUS Au- 
gustus Bartol. 



" But, truly, it is beautiful to see the brutish Empire of Mam- 
mon cracking everywhere, giving sure promise of dying or of be- 
ing changed. Jl strange, chill, almost ghastly dayspring strikes 
up in Yankeeland itself; my Transcendental friends announce 
there, in a distinct though somewhat lank-haired, ungainly manner, 
that the Demiurgus Dollar is dethroned; that new unheard-of 
Demiurgus ships, Priesthoods, Aristocracies, Growths, and De- 
structions are already visible in the grey of coming Time. Chronos is 
dethroned by Jove; Odinby St. Olaf; the Dollar cannot ruleinheaven 
forever. No: Jreckonnot. Locinian preachers quit their pulpits in 
Yankeeland, saying, '■Friends, this is all gone to a coloured cobweb, 
regret to say I'— and retire into the fields to cultivate onion-beds, 
and line frugally on vegetables. It is very notable. Old god-like 
Calninism declares that its old body is now fallen to tatters and 
done; and its mournful ghost, disembodied, seeking new embodi- 
ment, pipes again in the winds; — a ghost and spirit as yet, but 
heralding new Spirit -worlds, and better Dynasties than the Dollar 
One."— Thomas Carlyle. 



PART III. 



CHAPTER I. 

WORDSWORTH — THE CHRISTIAN THEIST. 

" Poetry is a thing more philosophical and mightier 
than history." Aristotle. 

" Pantheism, in one shape or another, may be 
predicated of allTrancendentalism ; but rationalistic 
Pantheism, pure and simple, is of quite another af- 
finity. Transcendentalism, as we now understand it, 
may be said to begin from the infinite nature of 
Duty (however the law may be interpreted), and the 
coalescence of Deity with the moral sentiment in 
man. This may tend, when 'produced' in ration- 
alized forms, to Antinomianism — it has done so more 
than once in history ; but pure rationalistic Pan- 
theism has no room for the conception of duty, at all ; 
it is essentially and of necessity unmoral. In read- 
ing Mr. Emerson, however, and writers of the same 
school, we might sometimes fancy we had Eckart, or 
even Thomas a Kempis, before us. Transcendental- 
ism begins from a sense of the immanence of God 
in the universe. The soul feels that God is not here 
or there, or thus and thus, this being holy ground 
and that profane ground, but everywhere. His love, 
yea, and His holiness, are in the lilies of the field, 
in the rocks and the trees, in the clouds and the 



260 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

stars ; unconscious of themselves, they are there, but 
in the soul of man they are conscious. The moral 
sentiment in man is, when we distinguish dialectic- 
airy, the voice of God ; but in the moments of abso- 
lute communion, God and the soul are one. There is- 
one great ocean of Being, and in that all distinction 
ends. Whatever is is right, and God is all and in 
all." Henry Holbeach. 

The dogmatism of literature is manifest 
to all who study, not only the signs of the 
times, but also the signs of eternity. Lit- 
erature which lasts has the authority of the 
best and noblest souls behind it. Human 
nature, to which much appeal is some- 
times made, by this means gives strong ut- 
terance to its opinions, which opinions, 
when examined, are the declaration of its 
constitution, the exhibition of its truth, 
the publication of its message. Scholarly 
critics of the greatest figure in English 
literature have been at pains to discuss, 
elaborately, the poetry of Shakespeare, 
as, in this sense, conspicuous; and, it may 
be said that Shakespeare has been known 
to give the foes of sound theology serious 
trouble, as he has been found as utterly un- 
manageable by the liberalists as by those 
who as?ail human nature through systems 



THE CHRISTIAN THEIST. 261 

of theology. This prince of poets is the 
prince of dogmatists ; and demolishes at 
once all the gratuitous assumptions of 
heretic and bigot. He has the author- 
ity now of many years of admiring criti- 
cism, spoken from all of life's points of 
view, and is thus doubly strong. All 
this, because the nature of man is a fixed 
quantity ; because he who exhibits it 
deals in marketable ware ; because he who 
builds upon it has builded upon what is 
immortal and in God's own image. Thus 
it comes that poets such as he live in the 
ever-increasing esteem of mankind; and 
it may be said again, without fear of its 
becoming distasteful, unless to those who 
have illy-considered systems of theology 
to preserve, that he who finds in such 
literature, as a leading and organic idea, 
any principle, which in other fields of 
thought seems disputable, takes with him 
into that controversy a strong argument 
for its truth — that human nature, in its 
sanest moods, has affixed thereto its sign 
and seal. 

Because the school of thought with 
which this essay has to do seeks no appeal 



262 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

from human nature, but rather, in high 
spirit, asks a final decision at this court, 
there is no need of further and more ex- 
tended statement. 

Lest it may be said, however, that the 
bible-ideas are poetic, and not to be 
treated as severely-thought maxims, but 
rather as the out-gushings of the imagin- 
ative soul, and that, therefore, little dog- 
matic account is to be made of them, it 
ought to be understood that if other 
poetry to which the ages give a hearing 
persists in perpetuating them, and hold- 
ing them up in all the rich coloring that 
the finest spirits can shed upon them, it 
is only the more certain assurance that 
human nature gets life from them, and 
declines to lose them. Because of these 
facts, and that they may be made more 
evident by illustration, as well as because 
his name has been associated with the 
very theory of being against which hu- 
man nature protests, is attention called 
to William Wordsworth, as a Christian 
Theist. 

The name has been redeemed from the 
aspersions of criticism, and blessed with 



THE CHRISTIAN THEIST. 263 

affectionate praise. Jeffrey, who thought 
him the most stupid of poets, and who 
grew petulant under what he took for 
weariness and inanity, has been hushed 
by human nature, which wakes at his 
mighty tread, and sees the world grow sig- 
nificant under his lustrous eyes, thinking 
him the most thoughtful of poets. "But 
human nature is Pantheistic, if "Words- 
worth is admired ! " " Human nature is a 
Transcendental! st, if his poetry is per- 
petuated ! " Because these are the asser- 
tions of those who do not understand 
Theism, and the philosophy which under- 
lies it ; because, also, these statements fall 
from lips which have never repeated 
Wordsworth understandingly ; because, 
as we believe, some even confuse the 
truth of Jesus with Pantheism itself — is 
his name brought into this essay. 

Most persons will grant that the asser- 
tion of the greatness of the soul can not be 
too loud or long. Mr. Emerson may say 
that " the remedy for our defects is, first, 
soul; and second, soul; and evermore, 
soul," if he desires. That claim can not 
be made too often. But he may only see 



264 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

one side of this "soul ;" then is his state- 
ment exclusive of other truth. Then 
does it cease to be truth. The edges of 
truths coalesce ; they never overlap or 
hide each other. Mr. Emerson ought, 
perhaps, to say this, and mean more than 
we think he does. For he may say " ev- 
ermore, soul," and mean &i evermore, in- 
tuitions." He may mean to preach Ideal- 
ism, and that alone. Then the assertion 
defeats itself, against the nature of things, 
against universal order, against the most 
low as well as the "Most High." All 
Idealism needs to be realized. All Real- 
ism needs to be idealized. Philosophy 
demands a mutual interpenetration of the 
facts in the case — that our dualism be at 
root and top monism. Then shall the 
most logical theory be the best in prac- 
tice. 

We are quite aware that the word 
Transcendentalist has fallen into bad 
odor; but it is a good word nevertheless. 
All true souls are, not in the sense of the 
New England Idealists, but in the sense 
of Jesus and Paul, Transcendentalists. 
What is the earth without the sky? 



THE CHRISTIAN TIIEIST. 2G5 

Yonderness, the unseen, the unrealized, 
the edge of the ideal which the real 
postulates — these every one who lives 
through and through knows and be- 
lieves in. But we stand on the earth 
to gaze at the section of deepest bine. 
We are here before w T e are there. Yon- 
der is beyond, and only what w r e see is 
seen. Yet our very Descendentalism, as 
Carlyle calls it, calls loudly for enough 
Trancendentalism to preserve the whole. 
And the soul finds itself often saying, 
" there is an America on the other side to 
balance.'' 

The term Transcendentalism was used 
long before Kant, by Duns Scotus. It is 
as absurd to date its birth with the great 
German thinker, as to suppose, with Mr. 
Frothingham, that the philosophy had a 
" distinct origin " with him. That, like 
many other fine words, it has been abused, 
no one can doubt. Those who have seen 
this have been most shy of it. On the 
high authority of Mr. Emerson, as well 
as for the reason that we desired the line3 
to be clear, have we used it up to this 
point as s\monymous with Idealism, such 



266 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

as was found on Brook Farm in 1842, 
such as was more highly developed in 
the religious philosophy of the East. 
This is conceding a good word to bad 
use. It is like the giving up of Deism 
to Herbert and Shaftesbury. Deism may 
be gone, and it may be useful to have 
that abuse made of it, to distinguish it 
from the basic .idea of the New Testa- 
ment and life — Theism. But Theism, 
which, if left in the hands of Richard 
Watson and many others, will go also, 
must be preserved. Is not Transcenden- 
talism worthy of more enduring asso- 
ciations ? Transcendentalism has been 
exaggerated, in that its distinctive char- 
acteristic — faith in the constitution of the 
soul as a light in investigation — has been 
magnified at the expense of other no less 
eminently worthy traits : faith in the 
marks of spirit anywhere, faith in God 
as what the soul desires. Theism has 
been exaggerated, in that its distinctive 
and characteristic belief in the Personality 
of God has been magnified at the expense 
of other characteristics, not less worthy, 
such as what Des Cartes called " the 



THE CHRISTIAN THEIST. 267 

Immanence of God/' and that to which 
Paul calls attention, when he says : "For 
we also are His offspring." Indeed, as 
the faith in the soul, to which Transcen- 
dentalism is pledged, has been made to 
be faith in only one set of the faculties 
of the soul ; so has the belief in God, as 
Sovereign, distinct from what He rules 
over, to which Theism clings, been taken 
as belief in One absolutely removed from 
His universe, to which He has given 
motion and a farewell. The upshot of 
the matter is, Transcendentalism passes 
for Idealism ; Theism for Deism. Emer- 
son has sanctioned this use of the one, 
Watson logically assents to that of the 
other. Both terms ought to be redeemed. 
In this true sense of the words, we 
must agree with one who has said much 
upon this subject, that "pure Theism can 
not stand unless it is of a Transcendental 
quality." 1 We must say more, pure 
Theism is not possible, unless it is of such 
a quality. Such Theism as is not, is only 

1 Transcendentalism in England, New England, and 
India. By Henry Holbeach. Contemporary Review, 
January, 1877. 



268 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

Deism. It closes up all the avenues to 
perpetual enlightenment. To any soul 
under the dominion of such a creed, truth 
is dead ; and truth is nothing, if it is not 
life. . There may be a God to the soul 
who can not be trusted at all, but there is 
no consciousness that there is. When the 
soul is trusted, on the other hand, as her 
nature suggests — trusted^ not required to 
invent — then God reigns consciously to 
the race of men. Transcendentalism, 
such as was that of Jesus and Words- 
worth, is faith in the intuitions to test, not 
to produce, what is said to be true ; and 
when, to a soul thus comparisoned by 
nature, it is hinted that God is, the reply 
of the whole man is, yea and even here. 
The Salvation of Theism is faith in first 
truths. All faith involves use, not abuse. 
While, on the one hand, it is as false in- 
tellectual policy and as much a negation 
of universal order to reject the testimony 
of these intuitions as it would be foolish 
to ask a salesman to sell exactly ten yards 
of silk without ever having measured silk, 
much less this piece, it would, on the other 
hand, be as false intellectual policy and 



THE CHRISTIAN THEIST. 269 

as ninch a negation of universal order to 
force these intuitions to discover truth or 
to formulate a system of life-politics, as it 
would be to require the finest landscape 
painter to manufacture, for the academy, 
a picture out of his ideas. Iranscendental 
has been made to mean subjective, as em- 
piric has been made to mean objective. 
And the Transcendentalism of 1842 and 
of Brahminism is the very antithesis of 
the Sensationalism of John Locke and 
the eighteenth century. The former 
culminates with absolute spirit with its 
forms of star and brain ; the latter, with 
absolute matter, with its final evolution 
of thought. The one is the genius of 
Pantheism; the other is that of Atheism. 

In the face of this, we plead for a re- 
storation of the word to philosophy. As 
the matter now stands, it is not definitive 
of anything, but of the abuse of a fragment 
of the whole nature, and that so magnified 
into absurdity as to render its oracular 
sayings obsolete so soon as uttered. 

To the out-and-out Idealist, there was 
nothing gained in leaving the eighteenth 
century Sensationalism, so far as reaching 



270 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

the whole truth was concerned. It was 
leaving one authority to adore another. 
It was only a change of half-truths, which 
are the seeds of whole errors. Both were, 
and yet are, false gods. The lordship, in 
each case, is excessive, and greatness of 
outlook, which can never come except of 
that least narrow of all things — libert} 7 — 
could not be here. It might have been 
an appeal from the Understanding to the 
Reason, as Coleridge thought, but that 
could not bring a full view. One might 
use Wordsworth's word and substitute 
in the equation of Coleridge, "Imagina- 
tive faith " for " Reason," and the tyrauny 
is the same. There is no gain in the ex- 
change of narrowness for narrowness, 
absolutism for absolutism. But there is 
gain in opening the whole soul. There 
is no overloading faith in man as a whole. 
There is always success in the line of na- 
ture and universal order. There is victory 
and accession of strength to him who en- 
ters in with his total self. Truth lies be- 
fore the soul who may use the word of 
Jesus, as a principle of activity: "Except 



THE CHRISTIAN THEIST. 271 

ye become as children ye can not enter 
into the kingdom of heaven." 

In this truer sense was Wordsworth a 
Transcendentalist. He is the chief, among 
later English poets, of those who use 
their intuitions. He believes them so 
fully that their influence is alwa} 7 s domina- 
tive. If three-fourths of life is conduct, 
as Mr. Arnold suggests, we must say that 
three-fourths of this conduct in Words- 
worth sprung from his faith in these tell- 
tales of the Divinity. The first truths 
are also the last truths to him. !N"o dif- 
ficulties of the sylogism could dispossess 
him. He felt them to be his best and 
ultimate possession, and what they 
brought when they came was his most 
valuable intellectual capital. His poetry 
is so woven on this idea that it stands as 
the testimonial of a high spirit to the na- 
ture of things as perceived by it. But his 
poetry is in marked contradistinction to 
the literature in which the intuitions are 
asked to work alone. In such cases, as the 
effort is fragmentary, the result is fragmen- 
tary. Nature and life are on the side of 
wholeness. He who looks at the nature of 



272 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

things without in the light of the nature 
of things within sees the whole truth. 
" As ye measure so shall it be measured 
to you." 

When the eye is filled with an unbelief 
which comes of faith in the intuitions and 
in them only ; when the ear is clogged with 
a trust in something else to the exclusion 
of trust in it; when the sentiments and 
passions, the desires and perceptions, the 
memory and judgment, are called upon 
not to follow but to remain at home, 
while the intuitions, which alone are said 
to be trustworthy, go out to catch glimpses 
of the whole ; when what is to dictate 
does not dictate to anything but itself; 
when wdiat is inner is made outer; then 
the result will be nothing. The spirit is 
not the richer. She has just what she 
had before. The intuitions brought back 
wdiat they took. Thought has not even 
been allowed to attach itself to something 
phenomenal. It may be imposed upon 
the thing, it is not gathered from it. The 
mountains are the language of the spirit 
which spake. The flower is the mirror 



THE CHRISTIAN T HEIST. 273 

of one's idea. The whole affair is a solilo- 
quy. And this is Idealism. 

When, on the other hand, the soul is 
told to hush, that length and breadth and 
thickness may be had; when she is said to 
be unworthy of reliance ; when she speaks 
about what is a fact of her own exist- 
ence, that the ear may discover the march 
of nations; when the imagination is called 
insane and pronounced an inventor of 
vagaries and superstitions, as the brain 
of Shakespeare is weighed with reference 
to King Lear and Hamlet ; when the in- 
tuitions are said to be wild theorists and 
weak but self-deceived thoughts, which 
can not be helped, as the grave of Jesus 
is investigated and the cross of Calvary 
tested for the discovery of blood; when 
this is our mode of faith, the sky is full 
of bright, yellow, shining things; the 
earth is a geologic formation ; the flowers 
are multiplex cells ; "Aurora Leigh " is 
the result of a peculiar modification of 
the matter within the skull; the census is 
taken ; graveyards are only fertilizers. 
And this is Realism. 

When, however, the whole soul is 



274 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

aroused to the privilege of expression and 
of receiving the gift of the universe ; 
when faith in all the avenues of being 
kindles anew the life therein; when eye 
and ear and sense are surcharged with 
the eager spirit ; when these messengers 
of the eternal truth — the intuitions — are 
all aglow with the contagion which pos- 
sesses the soul ; when the world without 
and the world within meet, each with 
each, the barrieis fallj thought and the 
thing thought of enter into knowledge 
by that strange transmutation; the im- 
agination lights it up with an unearthly 
radiance; Tintern Abbey is transfigured. 
And this is Ideal-Realism. 

The theological phase of the first is 
Pantheism; of the second, Atheism; of 
the third, Theism. 

The late critics of Wordsworth have 
called him a Transcendentalism If, by 
this, it is meant that he believed in what 
Aristotle called "the testimony of first 
truths," the term is always applicable. If 
it is meant that he accepted these primal 
instincts as the complete outfit of the 
soul, it is never applicable. It is known 



THE CHRISTIAN T HEIST 275 

that people who read Wordsworth in- 
cautiously think him to have been an 
Idealist and Pantheist once — that it was 
like Noah's intoxication, and only once. 
But any one who will look into the mat- 
ter one word's depth will see that his 
" imaginative faith" was in the soul, as 
such, and that, being a devout nature, his 
spirit was transcendental, as we are told 
all " deeply devout natures are." l He was 
a thoughtful nature ; and, being a thought- 
ful soul, he was transcendental, as indeed, 
also, all deeply thoughtful natures are. 
Mr. Frothingham would persist in calling 
him a Transcendentalist, in the vicious 
sense. 2 But it ought to be remembered 
that "Wordsworth never felt that glow of 
sympathy which accepted all that he 
heard of Idealism, as did Coleridge, when, 
together, they went to its leading advo- 
cates. Wordsworth did not learn the lan- 
guage, and, as Mr. Shairp says, he " gave 
the world instead immortal poems." Cole- 
ridge went alone to Gottingen, learned 
German, dived for the rest of his life deep 

1 Holbeach, Transcendantalism. 
2 Transcendaatalism in New England, p. 96. 



276 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED 

into transcendental metaphysics, and the 
world got no more "Ancient Mariners." 
Mr. Frothingham acknowledges that, in 
spite of the five chapters devoted to it, 
Coleridge was unsuccessful in his attempt 
"to bring Wordsworth's psychological 
faith into sympathy with his own." He 
then proceeds to say : " Wordsworth's 
genius has furnished critics with materi- 
als for speculation that mnst be sought in 
their proper places. We have no fresh 
analysis to offer. That the secret of his 
power over the ingenuons and believing 
minds of his age is to be found in the 
sentiment with which he invested homely 
scenes and characters is a superficial con- 
jecture. What led him to invest homely 
scenes and characters with sentiment, and 
what made the circumstance interesting 
to precisely that class of minds ? What, 
but the same latent Idealism that came to 
deliberate and formal expression in Cole- 
ridge, and suggested in the one what was 
proclaimed by the other ! For Words- 
worth was a metaphysician, though he 
did not clearly suspect it; at least, if he 
did, he was careful not to betray himself 



TEE CHRISTIAN THE1ST. 277 

by the usual signs. The philosophers 
recognized him and paid to him their ac- 
kowledgments." x 

All of which, the reader will notice, is 
an admission that there was enough of 
some other element to keep his faith 
in the intuitions from running wild; that 
he had Idealism, as all true poets have, 
and as all thinkers have. He had much 
more — enough of something to keep 
him from being classed with one that 
nothing but a reality could make him 
differ from. He was so natural a meta- 
physician that he did not 'suspect it. So 
are all the true souls. Until one has the 
dyspepsia he is unconscious of having a 
stomach; but then he thinks he has little 
else. So of false and unnatural meta- 
physics. Things go so easy with the 
Ideal-Realist that he dreams not of any 
possession. He simply possesses himself 
in the truth. " Ye shall know the truth," 
said the most conspicuous of them ; "and 
the truth shall make you free." 

Wordsworth's faith in Imagination was 
only the realization he had of the poet's 
aim and work. He knew that poetry was 

1 Transcendentalism in New England, p. 97. 



278 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

spiritual life in the atmosphere of the im- 
agination. "When Mr. Frothingham quotes 
him, and then asks, " Was this an echo from 
the German Jacobi, whose doctrine of 
faith had sometime been abroad in the 
intellectual world? 1 " he asks what the 
words of Wordsworth will answer by a 
strong negative. For, says the poet, " the 
imagination is conscious of an indistruc- 
tible dominion ; the soul may fall away 
from it, not being able to sustain its 
grandeur; but if once felt and acknowl- 
edged, by no act of any other faculty of 
the mind can it be relaxed, impaired, or 
diminished. Fancy is given to quicken 
and to beguile the temporal part of our 
nature; Imagination to incite and sup- 
port the internal." " Faith was given to 
man, that his affections, detached from 
the treasures of time, might be inclined 
to settle on that of eternity ; the eleva- 
tiou of his nature, which this habit pro- 
duces on earth, being to him a presump- 
tive evidence of a future state of existence, 
and giving him title to partake of its 
holiness. The religious man values what 

1 Transcendentalism in New England, p. 151. 



THE CHRISTIAN THEIST. 279 

he sees, chiefly as an imperfect shad- 
dowing forth of what he is incapable of 
seeing." 1 

As we shall see presently, whether the 
famous " Ode " is or is not a " clear remi- 
niscence of Platonism," Theism, which 
postulates the "immanence" of God, as 
Deism does not, which also clings to 
Personality, as Pantheism can not, desires 
no loftier strain. If the Transcendentalists 
of New England loved it, not less do 
those of the Wordsworthian school love 
it. If it is to Emerson, " the best modern 
essay on the subject," and " the high -water 
mark of English Poetry," so would it be 
to Paul ; so also to Ueberweg. If this 
passage suggests Eichte 2 — 

" This is the genuine course, the aim, the end 
Of prescient reason; all conclusions else 
Are abject, vain, presumptuous, and perverse, 
The faith partaking of those holy times. 

"Life, I repeat, is energy of Love, 
Divine or human; exercised in pain, 
In strife, or tribulation, and ordained, 
If so approved and satisfied, to pass 
Through shades and silent rest, to endless joy" — 

1 Transcendentalism in New England, p. 100. 

2 Ibid, p. 102. 



280 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

it also suggests one who said: "In him 
we live, and move, and have our being," 
as also, his master, saying : " God is 
Love," " The kingdom of God is within 
you," " God so loved the world that he 
gave his only begotten son," " Father, 
forgive them for they know not what 
they do." 

If this passage is like the " Panthe- 
ism " of Schelling 1 — 

"Thou, who did'st wrap the cloud 
Of infancy around us, that Thyself 
Therein, with our simplicity, awhile 
Might'st hold, on earth, communion undisturbed; 
Who, from the anarchy of dreaming sleep, 
Or from the death-like void, with punctual care, 
And touch as gentle as the morning light, 
Eestorest us, daily, to the powers of sense 
And reason's steadfast rule. Thou, Thou alone 
Art everlasting, and the blessed Spirits, 
Which Thou includest, as the sea her waves. 
For adoration Thou endurest ; endure 
For consciousness the motion of Thy will ; 
For apprehension those transcendent truths 
Of the pure Intellect that stand as laws; 
Submission, constituting strength and power, 
Even to Thy Being's infinite Majesty" — 

it is like the Theism of David, also. It is 

1 Transcendentalism in New England, p. 102. 



THE CHRISTIAN THEIST. 281 

taken from a copy of Wordsworth's 
poems, " once the possession of an ear- 
nest Transcendental ist," with these lines 
"underlined." 1 Now, it must he ad- 
mitted, that so far as this goes as a claim 
for its being Pantheism, the first two lines 
are as far from Pantheism as they could 
be, and the rest of the passage is only the 
poetic touch he has given to the fact that 
God is not only over all but in all. There 
is no fatalism here. All is balanced with 
the idea of personality, and, so far from 
saying that the " Spirits " of men are God, 
as waves are the sea, he only says that 
God includes them thus. It is a vision 
of a universe filled with life, and has no 
strain in which Christian Theism does 
not join. 

"It cau not be denied," says Mr. Shairp, 
" that in pure, but perhaps too confident 
youth, the Naturalistic Spirit, so to call 
it, is stronger in his poetry than the 
Christian. He expected more from the 
teachings of nature, combined with the 
.moral intuitions of his soul, than these in 

1 Transcendentalism in New England, p. 103. 



282 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

themselves, and unaided, can give." 1 Yet, 
it may be asked, did he not realize his 
greatest expectations ? We have no record 
of his disappointment. On the other hand, 
it is said, in truth, that from no one' has the 
literature of nature gained so much.. He 
says of himself, that to him came 

"Gleams like the flashing of a shield ; the earth 
And common face of Nature spake to him 
Kememberable things/' 

He had moments of great joy. 

"Oft in these moments such a holy calm 
Would overspread my soul, that bodily eyes 
Were entirely forgotten, and what I saw 
Appeared like something in myself, a dream, 
A prospect of the mind." 

His life was an undying memorial of 
the fact he declared : 

"To me the meanest flower that blows can give 
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears." 

Wordsworth is the apostle of the fact 
that God is, not was, and that, not only 
over all, but in all. This is Theism. 

But even if Mr. Shairp has the truth, 
he has said nothing which exhibits a vul- 
nerable side of Theism. If Pantheism 

1 The Poetic Interpretation of Nature, p. 269. 



THE CHRISTIAN THEIST. . 283 

reveals the presence of God, by making 
Him impersonal, Theism reveals it none 
the less, by holding to His personality. 
What can be the presence of an imper- 
sonal? Leaving this as onlv a suedes- 
tion, how can the impersonal one be 
nearer than the Personal One? Theism 
is impossible without a perpetual omni- 
presence. To hold that it is personal is 
not to remove it. It is to make it real. 
The best side of Pantheism is a dream 
afterwhatisafact to consciousness in The- 
ism, the everywhereness of God. Theism 
is just the statement that the constantly 
Present One is. The worst side of Pan- 
theism is also a dreaai, but in the oppo- 
site direction, of what is impossible in 
Theism — the abolition of duty, the de- 
struction of personalty, the denial of free- 
dom, and thus of the moral life, the loss 
of both nature and the supernatural by 
their identification. Theism is also just 
the statement that the Personal God is. 
Such a Theist was Wordsworth. It is 
absurd, because he believed in the pres- 
ence of God, to call him a Pantheist. As 
well miffht those who know him to have 



284 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

believed in the personality of God, call 
him a Deist. u 0s6z" " Theism " are words 
which suggest hoth. To Theism, as to 
Wordsworth, God is Personal Presence. 
Wordsworth exhibited the the truth of 
the paradox that when the soul sees God 
truly, it sees nature truly. Nature and 
the supernatural are ways to each other. 
The vision of God transfigures Nature. 
Then it is seen that the God over things 
and above things is also God in things 
and through things. 

Wordsworth himself tells us that he 
was visited with streaks of Idealism. 
He says : " I was often unable to think 
of external things as having external ex- 
istence, and I communed with all I saw 
as something not apart from, but in- 
herent in, my own immaterial nature. 
Many times, while going to school, have 
I grasped at a wall or tree to recall my- 
self from the abyss of Idealism to reality. 
At that time I was afraid of such pro- 
cesses. In later periods of life I have 
deplored, as we all have reason to do, a 
subjugation of an opposite character, and 
have rejoiced over these remembrances." 



THE CHRISTIAN THEIST. 285 

This Idealism is like that of Johnson's 
antagonist, which he refuted by. striking 
a u solid fact" — that is, it is no Idealism 
at all. Here is Idealism: 

"Sankara Atcharcya held the wise man's faith, 
That nought is real here, but empty as a wraith. 
One day a hostile Brahmin to his friends observes: 
' Drive we an elephant towards him, and if he swerves, 
He is a hypocrite, if not, he is a saint.' 
Accordingly, to ride him down they made a feint; 
Sankara fled aside at once. They ask, ' O, why 
Before a mere illusion did you stoop to fly ?' 
Sankara says : ' There was no elephant, no flight ; 
The whole was nothing but a dream's deceptive sight.' ' n 

The truth is, Wordsworth's power is 
manifest, in that he made vast additions to 
this spirit, and Mr. Shairp is right when, in 
speaking of his Idealism, which was the 
true Transcendentalism, he says : " The 
ideal light he sheds is a true light, and 
the more ideal it is, the more true." 2 
Such is Ideal-Realism, the philosophy 
which underlies Theism. 

Idealism itself is disintegrating to all 
the facts which come to man from the world 
without ; and even though within him 

1 I 1 rom Alger's Poetry of the Orient, p. 241. 
2 Studies in Poetry and Philosophy, p. 54. 



286 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED . 

there may be strong wants which, the facts 
without, as presented to him, desire to 
meet and propose to satisfy, if his Ideal- 
ism is of the pure, uncompromising sort, 
it melts them into the general mirage. 
The Idealist is logically only conscious of 
himself. To this phase of himself he 
looks as the radical fact, and when he is 
presented with something which, as yet, 
has been unincorporated (as his system 
suggests) into his knowledge of himself, 
which is foreign to his consciousness, 
though not to his wants, if he be logical, 
he views it as unsubstantialized by this 
principle. It was a new phase of self-con- 
scious life. He fuses the objective into 
the subjective. The without is lost in the 
within, since all extra-uess is intra-ness. 
Idealists, in spite of this, lay great claim 
to the exposition they give of belief in 
the being of Gocl. But, admitting that 
God is, to every Idealist — however much 
he may stand in need of such an existence 
to gratify and to satisfy his own existence — 
God can not be a fact without him as well 
as within him. This would outrage his 
principle. He is conscious of himself alone, 



THE CHRISTIAN THEIST. 287 

whatever may be the life within his life ; 
and thus it is that he comes to say God 
is and I am, in the same breath. But, be- 
cause such Idealism destroys the Sover- 
eignty, the Personality, the External One 
as outside of him, he must say : I am 
God, and He has touched lofty heights of 
being through me, in this, my assertion, 
since He knows Himself in me, and we 
are One. This has been finely termed 
" Egotheism." 1 It is also Idealism pro- 
nouncing itself Pantheism. 

While thus the line is clear between 
Theism and Pantheism, it is easy to agree 
with Mr. Shairp, when he says : u The in- 
visible voice that came to him, through 
the visible universe, was not in him, as 
has been often asserted, a Pantheistic con- 
ception. Almost in the same breath he 
speaks of 

'Nature's self, which is the breath of God. 7 

And— 

' His pure word, by miracle revealed.' 

" He tells us that he held the speaking 

1 Thomas Hill, Theology of the Sciences, p. 196. 



288 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

face of earth and heaven to be an organ 
of intercourse with man — 

' Established by the sovereign intellect, 
"Who, through the bodily image hath diffused, 
As might appear to the eyes of fleeting time, 
A deathless spirit.' 

"And, again, he says that even if the 
earth were to be burnt up and disap- 
pear — 

1 Yet would the living Presence still subsist 
Victorious.' 

To assert this, whatever it may be, is 
not to preach Pantheism. It is only to 
make the earth not a mere piece of 
mechanism, but a vital entity, and to re- 
gard it as in living and intimate relation 
with Him who made and upholds it, and 
speaks to Man more or less distinctly 
through it." * He might have added that 
it was simply the ensphering in the same 
thought of the antipodes of Christian 
Theism. t 

Mr. Henry Holbeach opens his excel- 

1 The Poetic Interpretation of Nature, p. 188. 



TEE CERISTIAN TEE1ST. 289 

lent article on Transcendentalism 1 by 
quoting the favorite story of the East : 

" One knocked at the Beloved's door; 
and a voice asked from within, ' Who is 
there?' And he answered, 'It is I.' 
Then the voice said, ' This house will not 
hold me and thee.' And the door was 
not opened. Then went the lover into 
the desert, and fasted and prayed in soli- 
tude. And after a year he returned, and 
knocked again at the door. And again 
the voice asked, ' Who is there ? ' And 
he said, ' It is thyself.' And the door was 
opened to him." 

lie adds: "Whoever receives with 
open arms this parable of the Persian 
poet, is, or may be, a Transcendentalism 
Whoever asks what it means, should 
hold himself warned off from the ground 
occupied or traversed by Transcendental 
writers or thinkers." 2 Which is to s\y 
that Transcendentalism, at the best, is 
Pantheism, from which Wordsworth, as 
is evident, is a long distance. 

1 Transcendentalism m England, New England' 
and India, Contemporary Eeview, Feb. 1877. 

2 Page 469. 



290 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED, 

He is right when lie quotes the younger 
Charming approvingly : 

" Transcendentalism, as viewed by its 
disciples, was a pilgrimage from the 
idolatrous world of creeds and rituals to 
the temple of the living God in the 
soul;" but it would be wrong to say that 
they succeeded. To trust in ritual and 
creed is always akin to Materialism, if 
not a touch of its spirit. To disregard 
all but the faculties believed in by them 
was, at least logically, Pantheism. The 
idolatry is the same. Both are illogical 
in principle. And nothing could be more 
absurd than to connect Cecil and Wilber- 
force 1 with such a theory, " at the expense 
of their logic," since they were too logical, 
as well as too practical, for such a fatal 
error. The Transcendentalism they pro- 
fessed and lived was, like that of Words- 
worth, with the logic of the universe on 
its side. 

The connection of true Transcenden- 
talism with Christianity is manifest to all 
who have come thus far. Christianity, 
which uses all of man, has to do with every 
atom of this Son of God. So far, how- 

1 Page 469. 



THE CHRISTIAN THE 1ST. 291 

ever, is it from that of Fichte and Emer- 
son — the one giving us a shoreless sea, the 
other absolving us from prayer — that it 
teaches the aspiration of the soul to the 
personal God, crying, " Our Father, who 
art in heaven," as it also invites to the 
belief, " Now are we the Sons of God, 
but it doth not yet appear what we shall 
be, but we know that when He shall ap- 
pear, we shall be like Him, for we shall 
see Him as He is." In this sense — that 
Christianity is the "power of God unto 
salvation " for the whole man — are its 
ethics Transcendental, and "might be 
otherwise expressed in the hackneyed 
words of Shakespeare : " 1 

"This, above all, to thine own self be true, 
And it must follow, as the night the day, 
Thou canst not then be false to any man." 

In Christianity every private aim is 
human. 

Mr. Edward Howden, who has said 
much upon this subject, can hardly be 
said to have taken into account all the 
forces of this movement, and is thus frag- 
mentary when he treats this phase of the 

1 Page 472. 



292 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

poetry of Wordsworth. It is manifestly 
too much to say that Wordsworth was a 
Transcendentalist, in the sense we have 
been criticizing, for, by Mr. Dowden's own 
showing, to him 1 " the senses, themselves 
sacred, and hardly more to be. named 
senses than soul, are ministers to what is 
highest in man, 'subservient still to moral 
purposes, auxiliar to divine.' There was 
for him an unceasing ritual of sensible 
forms appealing to the heart, the imagi- 
nation, and the moral will — a grand 
function was in perpetual progress while 
seed-time and harvest and summer and 
winter endure." 

Mr. Dowclen also says : " To those 
who are strangers to this state of im- 
passioned contemplation, Wordsworth's 
poetry, or all that is highest in it, is as a 
sealed book. But one who is in any true 
sense his disciple must yield to Words- 
worth, so long as he is a disciple, the 
deep consent of his total being. Now 
what appearance will the world present 
to senses which are informed with spirit? 

1 Transcendental Movement and Literature, Con- 
temporary lleview. July, 1877. 



THE CHRISTIAN THE1ST. 293 

It will itself appear spiritual, and as the 
gazer still contemplates what is around 
and within him, and his tranquility as- 
cends into a calm ecstasy, he will become 
conscious of all things, and himself among 
them, as, in a state of vital interaction, 
God and man aud nature communicating 
wuth one another, playing into and 
through one another : 

"And I have felt 
A presence that disturbs me with the joy 
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime 
Of something far more deeply interfused, 
"Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, 
And the round ocean, and the living air, 
And the blue s"fcy, and in the mind of man : 
A motion and a spirit that impels 
All thinking things, all objects of all thoughts, 
And rolls through all things." 

Idealism has not to do with the " Total 
being." In its poetry, God and man are 
one, and the same, and this logically. 
"What could be more absurd, than — even 
at this point, where those persons who 
seek a reason for calling him Idealist and 
Pantheist, stand triumphant — to conclude 
that there is any foundation for this claim ? 



29-4 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

The consideration given to this ques- 
tion will assist us in examining the claim 
of what is called " Christian Pantheism" 
to become the religion of the future. It 
will involve, also, a further discussion of 
Wordsworth. 



CREED OF THE FUTURE. 295 



CHAPTER II. 

IS "CHRISTIAN" PANTHEISM" THE CREED OF THE 
FUTURE? 

I sometimes wonder that the human mind, 
In searching for creation's hidden things, 
Should miss that high intelligence that springs 

From that which is not seen, but is divined. 

Does knowing much of nature make us blind 
To nature's hetter self? The Greek could see 
A conscious life in every stream and tree — 

Some nymph or god. Our broader faith should find 

A life divine, whose fine pulsations roll 
In endless surges through the secret veins 
Of earth and sky, which hidden still remains 

Save to the instinct of the reverent soul; 

Should know that everything from lowest sod 

To farthest star thrills with the life of God. 

T. R. Bacon. 
Sterling to Carlyle: "That is flat Pantheism!" 
Carlyle to Sterling: "And what if it 's Pot-theism, 

if it 's true ? " 

As the result of the attention suggested 
in the preceding chapter, it will be 
allowed that Wordsworth was a Chris- 
tian Theist. His poetry is impossible, ex- 
cept with the admission that the Personal 
One is also the Immanent. In him it 
is evident, if nowhere else, that true 



296 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

Transcendentalism gives personality as 
well as perpetual presence. These two 
ideas are both ensphered by Theism." 

That, logically, this Theism is opposed 
to that which is often heralded by those 
who cling tenaciously to what they call 
Orthodoxy, has been all along suggested. 
But Orthodoxy, as we have used it thus 
far, means only " right doctrine" as it 
means in any analysis. Allegiance to 
anything else is vicious. And allegiance 
to it will often have a serious influence 
upon that which uses its excellent name. 

One example may suffice. And in jus- 
tice to the church over which his influ- 
ence extends, it ought to be said that sub- 
stantially the same criticism which we 
urge here, has in other forms and from 
other points of view been mentioned, and 
some of the highest minds have spoken 
earnestly against this concession to a bad 
philosophy 1 and what is falsely called 
"Orthodoxy." 

!See especially the article oy Dr. B. F. Cocker, in 
Methodist Quarterly Keview, April, 1862, -'Meta- 
physics of Watson's Institutes," and his discussion 
of Mr. Watson's method in " Christianity and Greek 
Philosophy." 



CREED OF THE FUTURE. 297 

John Locke and Sensationalism ruled 
in the day of Richard Watson. The 
Transcendentalism of Kant had its devo- 
tees and followers here and there, but 
Empiricism held sway in the universities. 
It need scarcely be said that they were ut- 
terly opposed. On the one hand, Locke 
asserted, " Nihil in intellectu sed quod fu- 
erit prims in sensu,"the notion of "in- 
nate ideas" is at once absurd and vicious ; 
the mind is like a sheet of untouched 
paper — it is blank; knowledge comes of 
sensation, or sensuous perception, appre- 
hending external objects through the ex- 
ternal sense, and reflection, or internal 
perception, apprehending the phenomena 
within through, internal sense ; the form, 
as well as the material of our knowledge, 
is external ; and the external world is thus 
not merely the occasion of our ideas, but 
their cause. Color and sound belong to 
the subject perceiving, but extension and 
figure to the object perceived. We have 
no test of truth within. Knowledge is 
the perception of relationship or its op- 
posite; and these perceptions are regu- 
lated by the four relations of identity or 



298 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

diversity, relation, co-existence, and real 
existence. These are judgments: their 
truth must be made out by investigation ; 
the cosmological argument gives us God ; 
the materiality of the soul is conceivable ; 
there are no ideas of right, immortality, 
duty, responsibility, within man; the 
ethical principle is happiness. 1 

On the other hand, Kant asserted what 
had been asserted by Leibnitz : "Nihil in 
intellectu sed quod fuerit prius in sensu, 
— nihil sed intellectus ipse," the notion 
of innate ideas needs modification ; there 
are forms into which all thoughts must 
fall; there is a realm of freedom open to 
consciousness ; time and space are sub- 
jective forms; the argument for the im- 
mortality of the soul is moral; in the 
physico-theological argument for the ex- 
istence of God there is an implication of 
the principle of cause and effect ; certain 
principles are constitutive, others are reg- 
ulative ; experience gives the material for 

1 Ueberweg's History of Philosophy, vol. ii., pp. 
80-89. 

JBowen's Modern Philosophy, Introduction. 
Masson's Recent British Philosophy. 
Caird, the Philosophy of Kant. 



CREED OF THE FUTURE. 299 

some of our knowledge, the form is given 
from within; man is so constituted as to 
have ideas of duty, responsibility, free- 
dom, and God. 1 

Watson, as is evident, is a follower of 
John Locke. He asserts that " all observa- 
tion lies directly against the doctrine of 
the immortality of man;" so far as ob- 
servation goes, "the excessive indulgence 
of appetites usually impairs health," and 
that nothing, save this fact, indicates "it 
to be the will of God that the appetites 
should be restrained within the rules of 
sobriety;" not only God can not "be 
demonstrated by human reason " or " de- 
fined," but He can not " in the least be 
come at" He is "the only way to Him- 
self;" " causality is not a necessary in- 
tuition" — it is an affair "of argument 
and proof; " reason, " the logical faculty," 
is " weak/' " uncertain," " erring," and 
" may be the reverse of the Divine rea- 
son ;" "we owe our knowledge of the 

1 Ueberweg's History of Philosophy, vol. ii., pp. 
80-89. 

Bowen's Modern Philosophy, Introduction. 
Masson's llecent British Philosophy. 
Caird's, The Philosophy of Kant. 



300 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

existence of God and His attributes to 
revelation alone." x 

This has been shown to defeat itself. 
And not only as Dr. Cocker has suggested, 
if we reject reason in its efforts after God, 
who is the One revealed by the Bible and 
through Tradition, are we compelled to 
reject reason in its efforts to prove the di- 
vine character of the Bible, but also, it 
must be granted, that if our knowledge of 
the existence of God is from revelation 
alone, then, to prove the existence of God 
is impossible, and we must go further and 
assert that such Theism is, as we have 
said, only Deism. 

Grant that the assumption of the ex- 
istence of God is just, that the personal 
God exists. Now, if man, made in God's 
image, who is also " His offspring," de- 
pends solely upon revelation for a 
knowledge of this fact, is it not certain 
that His operation, so far as man can see, 
has ceased, that the universe has been set 
in motion, and that God has retired? 
Can we believe ourselves when we say 
that the Bible is Divine truth, and distrust 

1 Watson's Theological Institutes. 



CREED OF THE FUTURE. 301 

ourselves in regard to right and wrong, 
duty and freedom ? We are left with an 
assumption that God is ; which assump- 
tion, if held just, leaves us with the post- 
ulate, the being of God, and that only. 
We dare not say He is even here. Now 
this, it must be admitted, is Deism. It 
is certainly not Christian Theism. 

Christian Theism is scriptural and has 
no such contradictions. Paul felt its 
significance, as he said men were "His 
offspring ; " that " He is not far from every 
one of us ; " that " He hath determined 
the bounds of their habitation, that they 
should seek the Lord, if haply they might 
feel after Him and find Him ; " that what 
" may be known of God is manifest in 
them ; for God hath showed it unto them. 
For the invisible things of Him, from the 
creation of the world, are clearly seen, 
being understood by the things that are 
made, even His eternal power and God- 
head ; so that they are without excuse." 
Paul felt the presence of God as he who 
feels His personality only can. The 
theology of the Bible is of this same all- 
embracing idea. It unites personality and 
immanence, calling the infinite One Je- 



302 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

hovah. To show this by quotation would 
be to reproduce a large portion of the 
Bible. 

From such a clear atmosphere as any 
serious faith in this Divine message 
makes, what could seem less comely 
than the sober prophecy, which comes 
from certain Unitarian and Broad -church 
quarters, that the creed of the future will 
be " Christian Pantheism;" that, indeed, 
the Pantheism of Christianity is every 
day becoming more manifest, and that 
of such a scheme was Wordsworth the 
herald and interpreter ? 

We are told that Goethe's word— 

"In the tide of Life, in Action's storms, 
A fluctuant wave, 

A shuttle free, 
Birth and the Grave, 

An eternal sea, 
A weaving, flowing 
Life, all glowing, 
Thus at Time's humming loom 'tis my hand prepares 
The garment of Life which the Deity wears"— 

" is the true vision of the w r orld to mod- 
ern eyes ; " * that Tennyson has sung the 

1 Contemporary Eeview, September, 1877, p. 566, 
"The Scientific Movement and Literature," Edward 
Dovvden. 



CREED OF THE FUTURE. 303 

faith which, if it was not " once delivered 
to the saint," soon will be, when he 
sings : 

"Flower in the crannied wall, 
I pluck you out of the crannies; 
Hold you there, root and all in ray hand, 
Little flower; but if I could understand 
What you are, root and all — and all in all — 
I should know what God and man is." 

And — 

" The sun, the moon, the stars, the sea, the hills, and 
the plains, 
Are not they, Oh, Lord ! the vision of Him who 
reigns? 

"The ear of man can not hear and the eye of man 
can not see; •■ 
Yet if we could see and hear this vision — were it 
not He. 

"Is not the vision He — though He be not that which 
he seems!" 

and, by these, all are notified to prepare 
for it. Since this idea has serious refer- 
ence to the theory of this essay, and since 
such preparation is a large task, let us 
examine two or three of the strongest of 
these pleas, and find if there be any 
real ground for this announcement. 



304 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

Dr. Richard F. Liltledale has furnished 
one side of the argument with the best 
considered essay bearing upon the sub- 
ject. 1 Its title will be a surprise to most 
people. They have not thought of Pan- 
theism as they read the gospels and epis- 
tles. Indeed they have thought of some- 
thing totally different as their souls opened 
on the prospect of freedom, duty, immor- 
tality, and communion with a personal 
God. And, without further courtesy, it 
may be said that, so far as this learned 
article goes, they will not be the more 
certain that such a thing as Pantheism 
is even hinted in the literature of Chris- 
tianity, or indeed has any right to exist 
at all. 

With his assertion that " Words- 
worth was personally much less a Pan- 
theist than Goethe/' 2 all serious students, 
of whatsoever school, will agree. With 
his treatment of St. Paul 3 the satisfac- 
tion will not be so general ; and with his 

1 "The Pantheistic Factor in Christian Thought," 
Contemporary Eeview, September, 1877. 

2 P. 643. 

3 P. 650. 



CREED OF THE FUTURE. 305 

misinterpretation of Theism, and the con- 
sequent error into which he has fallen, no 
clear thinker can concur. 

He has tried to show — it may he to his 
own satisfaction — how, in Christianity, 
even the "seemingly contrary and in- 
compatible notions " of the past and pres- 
ent meet, 1 saying, among other things : 
" To one class of minds, Unity is the 
highest conception, and the object of 
worship, to secure its highest reverence, 
must be isolated in awful and solitary 
majesty. To quite another, that which is 
only one is imperfect — lacking all that 
plurality and fellowship can give — and 
therefore comes short of the highest ideal. 
The monotheist of the strictest kind, and 
the philosophical polytheist — not to take 
the lower forms of either into account — 
can find no common ground for their 
ideas, no possible reconciliation of their dif- 
ferences, outside Christianity; but within 
its pale the desired accommodation pre- 
sents itself, not as an ingenious compro- 
mise, but as the fundamental tenet of the 
creed itself, embodied from the first in 

1 Page 643. 



306 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

baptismal formula, and no development 
of a later age." 

This he calls a " crucial test," and out 
of it Christianity comes victorious. He 
adds : 

" It is therefore in full accordance with 
aualogy to expect that some cognate 
reconciliation may be found between the 
not more opposed conceptions of Pan- 
theism and Theism, especially when in 
the only original evidence we possess as 
to the manner in which the h'rst preachers 
of Christianity recommended their Gos- 
pel to cultured pagans, the harmony of 
the two ideas is at least implied, and that 
not obscurely. It is in the speech of Paul 
of Tarsus before the Areopagus. He as- 
serts the fundamental principle of pure 
Theism, that of a Personal Creator, in 
the words, " God that made the world 
and all things therein, seeing He is Lord 
of heaven and earth." He asserts no less 
clearly the fundamental principle of at 
least one aspect of Pantheism, by adding 
" In Him we live, and move, and have 
our being," which points to that view 
which maintains, not the absorption of 



CREED OF THE FUTURE. 307 

the infinite in the finite, which is the ex- 
pression of the lower and impersonal type 
of Pantheism, but that of the finite in 
the infinite, which is at least consistent 
with a very elevated and ardent Theism." 1 
Now, all depends upon Dr. Littledale's 
conception of Theism. If that is false, 
any argument he may erect upon it will 
be falsely established, and can have no 
weight. What, therefore, is his doctrine 
of Theism ? It is clear that there is no 
point where Pautheism and Theism are 
one. Personality can never shade off 
into the Impersonal. Duty is, or is not. 
The highest freedom may be called ne- 
cessity, but it is never fate. His Theism, 
to his own eye, has at least a decided op- 
position to what he calls " the lower and 
impersonal type of Pantheism." He 
would not object, certainly, to calling it 
Pantheistic Theism or Christian Pan- 
theism. From what qualities spring this 
antagonism? Dr. Littleclale shall be 
granted his own language, that we may 
be able to see them. We may be able 
best to find them from the following : 

1 Pajre 644. 



308 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

I. Wordsworth was its " chief expon- 
ent," in one of the two respects — that of 
" aesthetic delight in scenery." 1 

II. It has a religions history. " It has 
been found practically united with it in 
a very fervid combination, and that not 
merely in Platonizing Christians, like St. 
Clement of Alexandria, and the far more 
illustrious Origen, but in the man who 
stands out to all time as perhaps the 
noblest figure in post- apostolic church 
history, and as the received type of fear- 
less yet charitable orthodoxy, Athanasius 
himself." 2 

III. The Theism which opposes it is 
distinguished only for its being helpful to 
church distinction. We have the follow- 
ing account of it : 

" That sober, common-sense, unemo- 
tional, anti-mysterious type of religion, in 
no wise inconsistent with the Zwinglian 
aspect of modern Puritanism, which is 
the joy of archbishops and premiers, 
which ensures safeness and merits pre- 
ferment, which never tumbles into the 

1 Page 643. 

2 Pa^e 647. 



- EED OF THE FUTURE \ o 

pitfalls of in 

gaping at the feet - n-nasiasts and 

: like Tl 

wnward to the:: steps, bat 
which eontrariw. 

F .._'_:- 

= ] led : 7 

. 7 '_ it film of iee, whieh i 

tepid breath, may at any moment cause K ; 
It has Sunt with Pan- 

• .. bat t - . d 

. the pies : it . -... 
insists >n pnttin_ fee those whc 
t 

IT. It is only in t 
Jexandria, which was 

we shall see. to what is : 
the "lower*" Pantheism, that any 
can be bad. This is Di L::t . - =: ce- 

ment 

i the ther nan 1 rt is in mjstiea] 
theolog r 7 beg _ _ b AeAlex 

>f the doet F the Logm 

levelo] i tg in the EG : I .- 

onysius. that the an- to this s 

■ Paso •: i 



310 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

form of unbelief can alone be found, and 
that some answer, wbich shall not be a 
mere evasion or a restatement of the 
question itself in equivalent terms, can be 
found for the spiritual queries prompted 
by the new conquests of the human in- 
tellect in the domain of physical science. 
It is only in it that any adequate recog- 
nition of that infinite Unity in diversity 
which forces itself alike on the divine and 
the physicist can be found; only in it 
that an intelligible relation between the 
Absolute and the conditioned can be 
traced." l 

V. It supplies a rule of conduct, as Mr. 
Picton points out, in his " thoughtful 
essay" on Christian Pantheism. 

VI. The first great Pantheistic principle 
it will contain is the universal Fatherhood 
of God. Dr. Littledale holds that this is 
not only " compatible with Christianity," 
but is " an inseparable integer of it." 
Marcus Aurelius did not perceive it as he 
should, else he had believed in missions. 
" But St. Paul, in that same speech at 
Athens, adopts and amplifies that saying, 

1 Page 646. 



CREED OF THE FUTURE. 311 

whether of Aratus or of Cleanthes, ' For 
we also are His offspring,' and justifies 
thereby missionary enterprise amongst 
even the most degraded of mankind, 
whether racially or morally, as being 
capable of being made, to use. the signifi- 
cant words of another apostolic writer, 
< partakers of the Divine nature.' (2 
Pet. i. 4.)" l 

VII. " Next comes the Incarnation as 
the reconciliation of the antinomy be- 
tween God and matter, as the satisfaction 
of the irrepressible longing of man, not 
merely to understand God, but to be God, 
if not individually, yet by representation 
and union. This aspect of the central 
dogma of Christianity has received much 
illustration from the brilliant though er- 
ratic intellect of Hegel, little as his Christ- 
ology can be accepted as a whole, but he 
has hardly pushed his conclusions so far 
as two weighty paragraphs of Pauline 
argument seem to justify. The first is 
that deep saying in Romans viii : 19-23, 
where the whole of created nature, and 
not merely its human portion, is depicted 

1 Pace 650. 



312 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED 

as having a direct interest in the final 
consummation of the Divine economy, 
and as awaiting deliverance ' from the 
bondage of corruption into the glorious 
liberty of the children of God.' The 
second is the not less important declara- 
tion as to the functions of the Eternal 
Son: 'All things were created by Him, 
and for Dim, and He is before all things, 
and by Him all things consist.' It is not 
necessary to go the lengths of Malebranche 
here, and to deny the power of casualty in 
any real sense to men, treating them as 
little more than mere automata on which 
the Divine power is exerted ; it is enough 
to note his recognition of the fact that the 
Incarnation (of which he rightly takes the 
Scotist view) is the final reason of all 
creation, and not that of the creation of 
man alone." 1 

VIII. " The third great Christian dogma 
which is capable of being expressed in 
the terms of the higher Pantheism, is the 
Omnipotent influence of the Holy Spirit 
of God, as the source of the cosmic order 

1 Pa'jre 651. 



CREED OF THE FUTURE. 313 

and beauty of the universe, whether 
spiritual or material." 1 

IX. Great theologians have believed it 
and wrote of it. God is everywhere pres- 
ent and operative. 

" St. Augustine puts this proposition 
in these words : ' The power of the 
Creator, the omnipotence and might of 
the holder of all, is the cause of subsist- 
ence to every creature. And if this might 
were to cease at any time from ruling 
created things, their species would cease 
also, and all nature would crash.' JJe 
Gen. ad lit. iv, 12. And Hooker follows 
him almost precisely (Eccl. Pol., v. Ivi, 
5)." 2 

X. And yet this is not the " lower Pan- 
theism. ; ' For, says Dr. Littledale, " the 
contention is not that Christianity is 
Pantheism, far less that Pantheism is 
Christianity ; but that the fullest Christian 
dogma, especially in its devotional mani- 
festation, supplies more adequately than 
any other system of religion an intelli- 
gible and satisfying answer to the de- 

1 Page 652. 
2 Pa£re 654. 



314 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

mands which the intellect makes for a 
solution to the problem of the relation of 
the finite to the infinite, and that by ad- 
mitting certain ideas currently known as 
Pantheistic, into its domain, instead of 
expelling them as fundamentally in- 
congruous with itself," so that " the 
Christian thinker will not be tempted 
into the lower Pantheism, which identifies 
God and Nature, but will see, with Scali- 
ger, in all nature the traces of God — in 
creative energy, in sustaining might, in 
directing providence; and will regard all 
things as having acquired a certain sa- 
cred n ess from contact with the hem of 
Christ's garment as He trod the earth." 1 
While it is more than Theism, it " differs 
from Theism, not by defect, but by addi- 
tion." It is necessary for the future, be- 
cause " the inquirer who sets himself to 
investigate the pure Theistic beliefs will 
soon become conscious of a remarkable 
fact, that they do not furnish answers to 
some of the most weighty questions put 
by Pantheism, and to which it at least 
offers tentative solutions. They leave 

1 Page 654. 



CREED OF THE FUTURE. 315 

these questions on one side, and either 
evade or reject them, and in not a few in- 
stances are curiously lacking in certain 
qualities, such as devoutness, sense of 
mystery, reverence, and even ideality, 
which notably characterize, however il- 
logically, various Pantheistic systems." 1 

XL It may indeed be called the " higher 
Pantheism," by which " is meant Theism 
plus all that Pantheism can teach us as 
to the omnipresence of God in the Uni- 
verse, and as to the consequent awe and 
mystery in which the facts of creation are 
shrouded, without necessarily adopting 
the hypothesis that they are mere phe- 
nomena, having no real existence save as 
suggesting God." 2 

The reader will thus see that if the 
points of the essay are logically stated, 
they are their own answer. The essay 
is a thirsting cry for Christian Theism, 
as distinguished from a Deism bearing its 
name, or it is a plea for Pantheism. That 
another and more important plea may be 
considered, the attention given to these 

1 Page 658. 

2 Pua-e 659. 



316 METAMORPHOSES OE A CREED 

propositions will be simply sufficient to 
exhibit their inherent lack of point and 
the consequent impossibility of founding 
any serious claim upon them. 

I. In what was Wordsworth, as an en- 
tranced student of scenery, the champion 
of Pantheism, as distinguished from the 
Tlieism of the New Testament ? Was it 
because he asserted that Nature seemed 
to him full of a Being of whose personal 
presence be himself was the receptacle, and 
yet of whom neither the circumference of 
things nor the nearest flower — not even 
spaciousness, as we can imagine or hint 
it — can be the sole possessor? All-God- 
ism never fell from the lips of this min- 
strel of the world as God appeared in it. 
God in all, and over all, is the burden of 
his song. One is Pantheism, the other is 
Theism. He felt that however mucb 
there was of God in things, that even if 
every atom were " saturate with deity," 
yet about the edges of its existence the 
personal God was, and that his self-con- 
tained Being beat away in infinite waves, 
shoreless and illimitable. 



CREED OF THE FUTURE. 317 

Mr. Shairp says: "Philosophers have 
dreamed that nature and the human soul 
are the two links of a double-clefted tree, 
springing from and united in one root; 
that nature is unconscious soul, and the 
soul is nature become conscious of itself. 
Some such view as this, if it were true, 
might account for the marvelous sym- 
pathy there is between Wordsworth's 
poetry and the spirit that is in his own 
mountains, and for the power of render- 
ing their mute being into his solemn 
melodies." 1 

Obviously, if such a " dream," which 
is even untrue, as Mr. Shairp hints, is nec- 
essary to explain Wordsworth's poetry, 
then was Wordsworth, the poet of Pan- 
theism. But it is not. Wordsworth 
leaves it as a mystery of reason, whereas 
this view makes Wordsworth leave it as 
a mystery of unreason. No philosopher's 
dream has penetrated that relationship 
between the God with whom we com- 
mune consciously and the life of nature. 
Every true life, which is hardest logic, 
and the deepest investigator, because it 

1 Studies in Poetry and Phifos&phy, p. 58. 



318 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

carries the whole soul with it, has un- 
twisted the wonder, and reconstructed it 
again. Wordsworth lived down to the 
truth, and having unfolded it in his life, 
his poetry gives it as a mystery of 
the soul. Over unconscious nature, in 
"Wordsworth's poems, is. the fond lover 
exhibiting her loveliness of character by 
drawing out her deepest treasures ; to 
change the figure, the musician comes, 
with the instrument — the melody belongs 
to both. 

" — Now o'er the soothed accordant heart we feel 
A sympathetic twilight slowly steal, 
And ever, as we fondly muse, we find 
The soft gloom deepening o'er the tranquil mind. 
Stay ! pensive, sadly-pleasing visions, stay ! 
Ah. no ! as fades ihe vale, ihs.y fade away : 
Yet still the tender, A'acant gloom remains; 
Still the cold cheek the shuddering tear retains !" 

Wordsworth never thought of nature 
as a finality. He cracked the shell to get 
the kernel. Nature was valuable to him 
because of what she held. He looked 
for and found " thoughts too deep for 
tears," because he saw within her " some- 
thing far more deeply interfused" His de- 



CREED OF THE FUTURE. 319 

light in scenery is impossible, on the 
grounds of Pantheism, as distinguished 
from Theism. Let him know that me- 
chanically, and without leave, things 
sweep into him ; that life is a fixed line 
of manifestation for the " underlying 
substance ;" that the play of the emo- 
tions is on!}' that side of the self-evolving 
universe ; that the sharpest perception is, 
in no sense, his ; that in it nothing of 
purpose or desire, as personal, goes ; that 
there we are jesters to ourselves, while 
hard necessity gives form to every tear- 
drop of sympathy, and the uncertain but 
breath-seizing rapture which comes of 
beholding the pines cleaving in the sun- 
shine to rock-clad heights, the sigh which 
seeks to fill some awful depth below; 
that all these responses of spirit within 
us to the evidences of spirit without us 
are but the jubilant or mournful remarks 
of the whole to itself; that we are not 
then each looking into each, bat that 
then the All looks into itself; — let him 
believe this, and joy is flown, ecstasy is 
pronounced a fiction. 

Again, let him know that once an art- 



320 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

ist painted the walls and arch of the 
world, that out of the sky dropped upon 
lily and violet, heliotrope and pansy, 
those colors which fell from his lingers 
as he magically separated into its ele- 
ments a shaft of light; that all having: 
been made and decorated, motion, force, 
and relationship were given to the whole, 
that variety and life might be ; that, hav- 
ing done this, he rested, and has not been 
felt, save in so-called supernatural appear- 
ances, since in this universe; — let him 
think this, and poetry would be a music- 
laden epitaph. 

But let him once think and know in 
every action of his being that God is 
Jehovah indeed ; U I am that 1 am " is His 
name ; that as under and within what can 
not say " I am that I am," Jehovah 
must be, He is everywhere and here ; 
that he who looks within is conscious of 
the Eternal Presence; that he who looks 
without finds 

U A motion and a feeling that impels 
All thinking things, all objects of all thought, 
And rolls through all things." 

Then, indeed, is life real, and its richest 
rapture is the very truth. 



CREED OF THE FUTURE. 321 

The first 'is Pantheism, from which the 
genius of the orient can not take the ab- 
surdity. The second is Deism, which 
James Thomson tried unconsciously to 
glorify at the expense of his poetry. The 
third is Theism, which is the life-stuff' of 
Wordsworth's poetry, and the creed of 
the Universe. 

How absurd to talk of such a Theism, 
as if it could do without what Dr. Little- 
dale calls "the fundamental principle of 
at least one aspect of Pantheism:" "In 
Him we live and move and have our be- 
ing," more easily than without what he 
says is " the fundamental principle of pure 
Theism." " God that made the world, is 
Lord of Heaven and Earth." 

One is as fundamental as the other. 
c #£oc and Theism involve the truth of 
both. The poetry of "Wordsworth is the 
embodiment thereof. It was his joy that 
the same God of whom he sung, when in 
poetry he recorded his personal experi- 
ence, was also the universally present 
One, He who was seen in nature was 
the known One in the soul. This Personal 
Presence not only enveloped, but vital- 



322 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

ized the whole. The sort of God Words- 
worth had was quite different from that 
his critics, in the face of the following 
words, suppose him to have had : 

"O'er the wide earth, on mountain and on plain, 
Dwells, in the affections and the soul of man, 
A God-head, like the universnl PAN, 
Bv.t more exalted, with a brighter train. 
And shall his bounty be dispensed in vain, 
Showered equally on city and on field, 
And neither hope nor steadfast promise yield, 
In these usurping times of fear and pain ? 
"We know the arduous strife, the eternal laws 
To which the triumph of all good is given, 
High sacrifice, and labor without pause, 
Even to the death ; else wJierefore should the eye 
Of man converse with immortality 1 " 

II. So has the Inquisition ! so has 
slavery! so has the burning of Servetus. 
Does this make them Christian ? 

III. For the most part, though hardly 
meriting the qualities of soberness and 
" common sense," this is Deism itself. It 
is not Christian Theism. 

IY. We grant that Pantheism is far 
from Deism ; that he who is affected by 
Pantheism will not suffer from Deism. 
But this does not sanctify the errors of 
either, This is to rush from the Atlan- 



CREED OF THE FUTURE. 323 

tic into the Pacific. The wild waves of 
both wash solid shores. 

V. How can it supply rules of con- 
duct when all conduct is fate and duty 
is a dream. This will seem more evident 
in the logical results of Mr. Picton's 
« thoughtful essay." 

VI. "What is the Fatherhood of an 
Impersonal Being ? Or, if God attains 
self-consciousness in man, and there is, 
in some sense, personal, what need man 
seek for but himself? Is not "prayer," 
as Emerson says, " the spirit of God pro- 
nouncing His works good ? " " For we 
are His offspring," is of Theism, unless 
God be Pan. Then is it God in us say- 
ing that we are forms of God. This is 
for Pantheism to affirm its self-conceit. 

VII. Hegel is logical with his " Christ- 
ology." If we admit his principles, his 
" Christology " is upon us, whatever Dr. 
Littledale's objection. But has Paul 
gone farther than Hegel, with the same 
idea ? Paul then is a prince among the 
Pantheists ; and, accepting him, we are 
accepting Pantheism. Again, this is the 
phase of Unitarianism, which has been 



324 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

shown to be the nearest pure Pantheism. 
It is the nearest form of the old dogma of 
the metamorphoses of God. 

VIII. What is this, logically, hut Shel- 
ley's Spirit of Nature ? How could 
"Cosmic order*' come of the Imper- 
sonal? How do we know but that it is 
"Cosmic" confusion, as the writhing 
Deity seeks personality through self- 
consciousness ? And, above all things, 
how absurd to connect with such a 
scheme, the name of William Words- 
worth, who sings of the Holy Ghost of 
Theism : 

" The prayers I make will then be sweet indeed, 

If Thou, the Spirit give by which I pray ; 

My unassisted heart is barren clay, 

"Which of its native can nothing feed: 

Of good and pious works Thou art the seed, 

"Which quickens only where Thou sayest it may: 

Unless Thou show to us Thine own true way, 

No man can find it. Father, Thou must lead. 

Do Thou then breathe these thoughts into my mind, 

By which such virtue may in me be bred, 

That in Thy holy footsteps I may tread ; 

That I may have the power to sing of Thee, 

And sound Thy praises everlastingly." 

IX. So Theism believes, knowing that 
the Personal can be as near as the Im- 



CREED OF THE FUTURE. 325 

personal ; believing that, in fact, " pres- 
ence " without personality, is well nigh 
meaningless. If Dr. Littledale desires 
to save both ideas — personality and im- 
manence — he has chosen a very absurd 
expression, Pan-Theism. 

X.-XI. Why, then, distinguish against 
Theism, by pronouncing a word, which, 
if it mean anything else than pure The- 
ism, is not "lower" or "higher,'' but 
pure Pantheism. He says that this does 
not point to the view that maintains the 
absorption of the Infinite into the finite, 
but to that which maintains the absorp- 
tion of the finite into the Infinite. The 
first he calls " the lower or impersonal" 
Pantheism, the second, " the higher or 
personal " Pantheism. What could be 
more fanciful ? Where is personal man 
in any case of " absorption ? " If we 
have no personality, our thoughts are not 
our own, and the notion of Divine Per- 
sonality is an evolution of necessity. The 
lines fall. " The simplest person who, in 
his integrity, worships God, becomes 
God," as Emerson rightly said. ' Finite- 
ness is gone, having returned to infinite- 



326 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

ness. Duty, immortality, personal ex- 
istence, are dreams. All is God, and God 
is all. 

Yet Dr. Littledale does not desire this. 
lie says : " It is as necessary to maintain 
the objectivity of the Divine Personality 
as it is to guard against that entire abne- 
gation of human personality as having no 
ethical, no mental, and no substantial ex- 
istence of its own apart from God, which 
is common to Augustine, to Malebranche, 
and to Spinoza ; for whenever either is 
denied, and men are logical, religion, 
which means a definite relation between 
God and the soul, each regarded as per- 
sonal existences, capable of intercourse, 
becomes impossible, at any rate so far as 
affection and conscience are concerned." 
Can it be said, then, that Pantheism is 
the only antidote to the ills of present- 
day error, when it plunges into such in- 
finite darkness ? Must it not be said that 
Christian Theism, rightly understood, is 
what even this scholarly man seeks ? 

Consideration would be asked of Prof. 
Blackie's stray hints upon this subject, 
did they involve any new points, and did 



CREED OF THE FUTURE. 327 

not Dr. Littledale state them with far 
greater clearness and force? His asser- 
tion that the words 

" A motion and a spirit that impels 
All thinking things, all objects of all thought, 
And rolls through all things," 

" are distinctly Pantheistic," comes from 
a misconception of Theism, on the one 
hand, and the strange blander, on the 
other, of not "distinctly" observing the 
difference between a universe providen- 
tially and naturally influenced into its 
path by impulsion, and forced into its 
path by compulsion. To Wordsworth, 
as to most people, the ideas are quite dif- 
ferent. 

So, also, of the essay of Robert St. J. 
Tyrwhitt. Its points have been treated. 
To all those who follow in this line of 
criticism, to any who may think Words- 
worth a Pantheist, these words on Duty 
ought to be sufficient. Let Wordsworth 
himself close this discussion forever. How 
anybody can read them and believe this 
philosophic poet to be, in any sense, a 
Pantheist is more than we can under- 
stand : 



328 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

11 Stern lawgiver ! Yet thou dost wear 
The. God-head's most benignant grace; 
Nor know we anything so fair 
As is the smile upon thy face ; 
Flowers laugh before thee on their beds ; 
And fragrance in thy footing treads ; 
Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong ; 
And the most ancient heavens through thee are 
fresh and strong. 

" To humbler functions, awful power ! 
I call thee ; I myself commend 
Unto thy guidance from this hour; 
Oh ! let my weakness have an end ! 
Give unto me. made lowly wise, 
The spirit of self-sacrifice ; 
The confidence of reason give ; 
And in the light of truth thy bondman let me 
live!" 



CREED OF THE FUTURE. 329 



CHAPTEE III. 

is "christian pantheism" the creed op the 

FUTURE? 

"Alles was unsern Geist befreit, ohne uns Herr- 
schaft iiber unsselbstzu geben, ist verderblich." 

Goethe. 

" We can test the controverted questions of to-day 
by the analogy of other questions which common 
sense has already decided. These precedents consti- 
tute the common law of mankind. We try what is 
before us by the analogy of experience, which thus 
obtains (as Milton says) a certain prophetic quality." 
James Freeman Clarke. 

By the consent of all, is the essay of 
Mr. Allanson Picton — who gave the world 
a hint of his theological method in his 
" Seven Lectures on the Keligion of Je- 
sus," published by the English Unitarian 
Association — called " Christian Panthe- 
ism," 1 the best expression of this move- 
ment. The title must be granted a mis- 
nomer, if anything has been said which 

1 " Christian Pantheism/' last essay in his volume, 
" The .Mystery of Matter and other Essays," Mac- 
millan's, London. 



330 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

exhibits the nature of Theism on the one 
hand, and that of Pantheism on the other. 
If Christianity is inclusive of the idea of 
continual personal existence, then no 
" Pantheism" can be called " Christian." 
If Theism has been shown to postulate 
the Divine presence as much as the Di- 
vine personality, it, on the other hand, is 
preeminently Christian. In the specific 
defense which is made of the title, in the 
early part of the essay (for the essay it- 
self is a general defense, and, in one other 
place Mr. Picton seems unsatisfied with 
his initial effort, and gets at it again), is 
found another illustration of the fact 
that even the best gifts will refuse to 
accomplish the impossible. His only 
arguments for the use of such an in- 
congruity seem to be, first, a love of Chris- 
tianity ; secondly, that Christianity must 
rest upon a consciousness of our relation 
to the Infinite ; thirdly, that the spirit of 
Christianity is immortal. From these he 
is able to say that the seeming contradic- 
tion is only a paradox ; that the paradox 
is only apparent ; that, at any rate, the 
possibility of a Christian Pantheism is an 



CREED OF THE FUTURE. 331 

" issue fairly raised, not only by the spec- 
ulative tendencies of modern philosophy, 
bnt also, and far more forcibly, by the 
enormous expansion of scientific generali- 
zations, which have not ouly enlarged, 
but have, in some respects revolutionized 
our idea of the universe." x That it is an 
" issue fairly raised," as any question, 
under the sun, however absurd, nobody 
will doubt ; and it will not meet with 
" the treatment appropriate to moral cor- 
ruption or arrogant self-will ; " 2 if even 
we shall not be able to see what these ar- 
guments have to do with it. 

We are thus brought face to face with 
the question, is Pantheism Christian? 
Carlyle's joke is quoted. The signs of 
the times, as seen by the essayist, are 
quoted also. They might, perhaps, be 
more accurately called the signs of pres- 
ent-day and rather hasty science. Neither 
prove anything. The question still stands, 
believing that Christianity is immortal, 
is Christianity any sort of Pantheism ? 
Will Christian Pantheism be the creed of 

1 Page 321. 

2 lb. 



332 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

the future ? To settle these will be, since 
firm reliance is placed in human nature, 
to settle the question, is Pantheism true? 

That it is not, logically, the creed of 
the future is maintained, and more, that 
all the vagaries, which, with an art so 
true as to be unconsciously used, are 
put to the proof of its truth, are the re- 
sults of great error with respect to the 
truth of Theism, or great error with re- 
spect to the nature of Pantheism, coup- 
led with a tendency to make dogma out 
of the unproved assumptions of contem- 
porary science. 

And to enter into the work of estimat- 
ing the weight of Mr. Picton's argu- 
ments, it may be said that, so far as the 
" growing intolerance of the old mean- 
ing attached to the word creation " l is 
concerned, Theists, as he knows, are 
not satisfied and do not seek to hide their 
discontent. With the state of things 
and the nature of the facts which it, how- 
ever incompletely, asserts, or even hints, 
Mr. Picton has agreed, we can not and 
need not demand to be perfectly ac- 

1 Page 322. 



CREED OF THE FUTURE. 333 

quainted. Indeed, as the true " philoso- 
phy of ignorance," which hardly assents 
to his theories, would suggest, we are to 
prefer and to owe allegiance to that 
which in itself and in its results is the 
most rational, leaving whatever is less ra- 
tional as in this sense untrustworthy. 
The upshot of all serious discussion leaves 
us with this principle. Now, any school, 
from the most earnest dogmatist to the 
Agnostic, must admit that the question 
as to the origin of things, as related to 
any supposed or known existence, must 
he forever food for speculation ; indeed, 
that it lies beyond our finest sight. He is 
wise, here, who asserts least. If he must 
assert, let him hold to what, in itself and 
in its consequences, has the most of rea- 
son and carries with it the most of the 
the authority of the known. There are 
some assumptions which carry with them 
the whole nature of things. There are 
some " winds of* doctrine " whose power 
must be measured by the energy with 
which their appearance sends the roots 
of the trees down and out into the world. 
The weight of some things is known 



334: METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED 

from the weight of all things else. What 
carries with it the most of reason — what 
contradicts least the method imposed by 
the universal order— is to be believed 
rather than that which in its stead is of- 
fered. To believe in human nature is to 
believe that the creed of the future will 
carry with it the most of reason, as com- 
pared with other creeds proposed to it. 
The question, theu, turns upon this, 
which has the most of reason ? Right 
here, it would be most pleasant to insert 
a discussion of the fact that, as eminent 
examples as well as sound reason prove, 
no Theist need fear to deny the creation of 
the world out of nothing. 1 But for the rea- 
son that this discussion grows longer than 
was intended, and especially that the folly 
of Pantheism may appear, it will be 
maintained that even the assertion of the 
old theoiw has better ground in the na- 
ture of things than the assertion which 
Pantheism, though' it bear the cross as an 
ensign, must make. 

Suppose, then, that it is a fight be- 

1 Knight in Con. Kev., Oct., 1876," Personality and 
The Infinite," and J. G. Fichte's "Die Speculative 
Theology." 



CREED OF THE FUTURE. 335 

tween the old notion and this, as defended 
by Mr. Picton, must we not, in thus specu- 
lating out upon this coast-line between 
what is to be understood and what can 
not be understood, trust ourselves, our 
noblest instincts, our most authoritative 
intuitions, those primal truths ? Can 
reason operate without them ? Does not 
reason, in every act, treat them sacredly? 
Does not reason attain the present height 
by their use? Is she, having reached 
the awful summit, to forget, in her desire 
to go higher, her invaluable help ? Is 
sbe to scorn them? Would not such a 
course of reason be unreasonable? To 
ail of these, Yes. Is it not then the 
veriest folly to preach an assumption in- 
volving Pantheism? Pantheism sets its 
denial upon the universal. It is a protest 
against the entire nature of things. It 
abolishes personal existence. It annihi- 
lates freedom. It strangles duty. It 
dashes morality into pieces. It drags 
into its own abyss of absurdity the pos- 
sibility of man. Must we trample into 
dust the very surest intuitions we have, 
the strongest persuasions which come to 



336 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

us, the highest authority we possess un- 
der God, to determine what, confessedly, 
we can not define? Can this be recon- 
ciled with any " philosophy of ignor- 
ance?" 1 Is it not dogmatism run mad? 
And yet this is " Christian Pantheism !" 
To believe in its assumption is, obviously, 
not only to uproot all the truths of which 
one is possessed but to outrage the policy 
of the soul. That this is nothing new, 
we have already seen. But that this 
alternative has been approached by Chris- 
tian thinkers, and that it has even been 
defended by some of them has no more ap- 
positeness than that a Chri stain founded the 
Inquisition, with regard to the assump- 
tion that, therefore, it ought to be called 
"Christian." If Christian Pantheism 
stands upon no sounder base than this, it 
will hardly be the creed of the future. 
For the reason that -no one " now hopes 
for a complete and adequate conception 
of the universe; but rather that the ideas 
we cherish must harmoniously combine 
to form one germinal notion, capable of 

1 See essay by Mr. Picton. "The Philosophy of 
Ignorance," page 61. 



CREED OF THE FUTURE. 337 

equal and congruous expansion in all 
directions, in accordance with the ad- 
vance of knowledge" 1 — for this very 
reason, which Mr. Picton has urged, are 
we compelled to reject his conception. 

Neither can we conceive of the philoso- 
phy of evolution, as of any assistance, as 
yet, in dogma-building. If, as he says, 
"we can not treat vital force as funda- 
mentally and finally different from ma- 
terial force in its relation to the infinite 
divine energy," 2 neither are we quite able 
to treat it as wholly identical. It must 
be regarded as a little like overwork- 
ing a very small child, when Mr. Picton is 
compelled to press into the service this 
plea, when, as is well known, the first men 
of science are not at all sure but that it 
may die before it is dressed. 

Mr. Picton will fail of convicting any 
Theist of anthropomorphism. He will 
agree with his assertion that "we may 
still say of the Almighty that we are 
His offspring;" and may still recognize in 
the consciousness which thinks and says 

iR 323. 
2 Ibid. 



338 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

this, a phenomenon manifesting more of 
the fullness of God than any apparently 
mechanical operation of nature. But, to 
insist that the difference is precisely of 
the same character as that which dis- 
tinguishes a man's handiwork from the 
children of his body, is to adopt an 
analogy, which our present knowledge 
of the connection between human history 
and physical evolution makes manifestly 
untenable and false." l He will repeat 
this with Mr. Picton, because, in any 
logical sense, it is Christian Theism. He 
may do what he will with the " evolu- 
tion," as his Theism stands none the less 
secure. 

But he will not agree, that, because he 
does not understand his own sj^stem, he 
has none. Mr. Picton grounds his claim 
for Christian Pantheism on exactly the 
ground which has not been explored. 
The truth of creation he does not know. 
He must admit this with the most dog- 
matic of the Orthodox. The difference 
lies here, that one produces a system 
which does not explain everything, and 

1 Pp. 323, 324. 



CREED OF THE FUTURE. 339 

is, so far as the human mind can see, irra- 
tional and false, while the other produces 
a system which does not explain every- 
thing, and is, so far as the human mind 
can see, rational and true. And it must 
be added, if the Bible does not contain 
any clear word upon the subject, that so 
long as he has respect for such truth and 
the Bible, he can not avoid meeting with 
statements which are not thoroughly 
understood. 

To proceed upon the well-prepared 
ground of this accomplished essayist, to 
take his own words, as they come, that 
we may not seem guilty of building a 
man of straw, if we agree that the es- 
sential nature of religion involves no 
merely historical opinion that, therefore, 
the loss of any historical opinion will not 
harm religion, we can not excuse him of 
sophistry when he thus tries to save 
Christian Pantheism from the charge of 
irreligion ; for, since religion u rests," 
with him, " in a present consciousness of 
our relation to the Infinite," 1 which, with 
his or any other interpretation does not 

1 Page 326. 



340 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

involve a personal Infinite at all, since to 
break in upon the personal God is to 
break in upon personal man, we have no 
such thing as religion, and the whole af- 
fair is Pantheism approving itself. 

No one can doubt but that, as he hints, 
he can prove that what he calls religion 
is entirely consistent with " all the gen- 
eralizations which mingle in one common 
germ of evolution, the origin of man and 
the world." 2 The description of this re- 
ligion is as vague as that of any Panthe- 
ism. Believing in the sentiment of wor- 
ship, that there is worthy object of devo- 
tion, it is a little strange to behold his 
picture, and to see Fenelon excusing him- 
self from the society of the Ineffable Per- 
son, and seeking rapture in " the one- 
ness of things." We can hardly think 
of Cromwell beseeching simply " a To- 
tality of Power," and Wordsworth is 
truly no Christian Theist if he com- 
munes with the " underlying substance" 
alone. The fact is these men were The- 
ists, pure and simple, and in the worship 

i P. 326. 



CREED OF THE FUTURE. 341 

of Jeliovah they had all these and much 
more. 

Life has, it will be admitted, a more 
accurate logic than the closest thinker. 
If the soul postulates a personal God, 
much more does life, the soul's disposi- 
tion of its environment. If, therefore, 
these " indefinite glories are insufficient in 
themselves to form a practical religion," * 
are we to believe that the " essential 
nature" of religion consists in them? 
Indeed, are we not to say that its essen- 
tial nature consists rather in what seizes 
such lifeless elements, and by shedding 
over them the unutterable glory of the 
Infinite Person, transform them into the 
energies of the world? They may be, 
and are, in that communion with God 
which gives to all practical religion its 
life. But, if this is admitted, the vis 
vitce of religion is agreed to be com- 
munion with the Personal One. What, 
therefore, could be more absurd than to 
stand in the face of man and the nature 
of things, and close this paragraph with 
the following : " This itself is sufficient to 
X P. 326. 



342 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

force on our attention the probability of 
some particular issue to the spiritual con- 
flict of our time." 2 

In his fight against Anthropomorphism 
we are with him to the end. But this is 
not to assent to what is far less reasona- 
ble and just, the sublimation by the disin- 
tegrating influence of Idealism of the 
Eternal One into the figure of Pan. Crit- 
icism is quite sick of much of Mr. Ar- 
nold's bare protesting against the Per- 
sonal One, who " thinks and loves," for 
all admit, that, help it if we could, it 
would still be the best way to God. Crit- 
icism is, however, totally disgusted when 
he advises instead, what to those from 
wdiom he takes One who "thinks aud 
feels," is a far more material conception, 
a something whose uncovered lungs can 
be felt to be our own world, and the com- 
panions in space, as it is described with a 
height of Anthropomorphism exceeding 
that of the Bishop of Gloucester and 
Bristol, as a "power that breathes and 
feels." 

We are glad that " generic experience" 

2 Tage 327. 



CREED OF THE FUTURE. 343 

has been called up, because this will put 
the argument upon its merits. It is 
truthfully announced that it " means 
more than any traditional opinion." ' 
Now, "generic experience" proves that, 
in our conscious relations to the Infinite, 
we touch a reality which can not be pic- 
tured otherwise than as a Personal Being. 
We are led to inquire, is this picture the 
true one? Which is to inquire, is "gen- 
eric experience" to be believed ? So that, 
in the forms which this argument takes, 
it comes to this, are we to believe our fac- 
ulties or our assumptions? 

Now, with regard to the " argument of 
design," which it is the fashion to criti- 
cise, all will admit, with Mr. Picton,that 
Cicero's objection to the " Opifex Deus " 2 
may be well founded; that if Paley's 
"watch argument" were pressed to its 
results it might not prove anything; but 
even if, as we are told, "the essence of 
design signifies compliance with inevita- 
ble conditions, apart from which the end 

1 Page 329. 

2 Page 330. 



344 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

would be unattainable" 1 (which, after all, 
is only true of God, from the most an- 
thropomorphic conception of Him), and 
if it only " proves the existence not only 
of a designer, but of a designer working 
under difficulties which can only be over- 
come by ingenuity," and that the degree 
of simplicity or directness in the means 
used, as compared with the possibilities 
of the case, is a measure of the knowl- 
edge, the fertility of the resource, or the 
care concerned in the production of the 
work," 2 if, indeed, it would prove the 
existence of a mind limited by inevitable 
conditions, and overcoming difficulties by 
an effort of deliberate thought, 3 the mind 
would not be kept from asking — who de- 
signed the conditions? 

We do not stop to argue the force of 
this, because the Being of God by no 
means depends upon the argument from 
design, and the criticism which follows 
is, upon the whole, well taken. But it 
does not help the case of Pantheism. Be- 

1 Page 331. 

2 Page 322. 

3 Page 333. 



CREED OF THE FUTURE. 345 

cause the illustration of the watch can 
not walk on four feet, is the absurdity of 
the scheme which makes the statement 
healed ? We agree to the Eternal Power 
in the world. This is Theism. We 
agree to " force by Him." This is also 
Theism. And it is Theism which points 
to the certainties of exact science as un- 
folded by the progress of to-day, as the 
testimony of human investigation to the 
fact that "in Him we live, and move, and 
have our being." So far as science and 
reason go, they prove that the mystery of 
being, as held by Theism, is not a contra- 
diction, but belongs to those truths above 
us, to which we are invited by all our 
faculties, and which are the glorious 
heritage of the sons of men. " The 
gates thereof are open continually." The- 
ism, without such sublime truths, would 
be the earth without its limitless, yet 
tender, heights of blue. 

From this point we are asked to go to 
the religious nature of man and its .his- 
tory. Mr. Picton says : " If the view 
maintained, concerning the essential na- 
ture of religion, be at all correct, we 



346 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

might as well look for hints of Panthe- 
ism in the religious emotions them- 
selves." 1 But the view was seen to de- 
stroy itself. Yet we may look at some 
of the positions taken, which, if it could 
have stood alone, were to help its sta- 
bility. 

Paul did say " in Him we live and 
move and have our being." "In most 
of his references to the Divine Being, the 
Apostle appears to assume a personal 
nature, denned according to the analogy 
of our own consciousness." 2 This is 
true ; but to say that Paul was a Panthe- 
ist because his analogy was not large 
enough for the Ineffable One, while Mr. 
Picton has so often admitted that any 
analogy is only partial and is not to be 
used to the destruction of other known 
truth, is to play fast and loose to manu- 
facture dogma. Paul simply hinted one 
side of the truth of God — His imma- 
nence. The mistake for which the essay- 
ist censures theology is his own. To tell 
people that they must not push the anal- 

1 Page 318. 

2 Page 348. 



CREED OF THE FUTURE. 347 

ogy of Paul into Deism is not to justify 
the pushing of the analogy of Paul into 
Pantheism. He who understands Paul 
understands a Christian Theist. 

It will be evident, therefore, without 
any treatment, that Paul is preaching 
Christian Theism — which uses the truth 
contained in both Deism and Pantheism — 
when he says: "The Son Himself also 
shall be subject unto Him that put all 
things under Him, that God may be all in 
all ;" when he speaks of "the fullness of 
Him that filleth all in all ;" as also John, 
when he conceived God as " Infinite 
Light," and Jesus, when he gives the in- 
terpretation of the 82d Psalm. 1 Without 
seeking to show that these are the high- 
est utterances of Theism, we will let Mr. 
Picton care for his own use of them, as 
he admits the language to be " mystical 
and indefinite," thus agreeing that they 
are not quite literal dogma. He surely 
can not do what he condemns in everybody 
else. 2 

Furthermore, if such men are worthy 

1 Pages 349, 350. 

2 Pages 346, 347, 3J8, especially page 300. 



348 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

of being heard, Paul was quite aware of 
his speech ; John was conscious of what 
he said; Jesus felt himself to be the 
teacher of the race. If this is so, Paul 
did not preach Pantheism, which must 
now be quite contrary to all else that he 
wrote; John did not preach Pantheism, 
when all that he said must be understood 
as involving the very opposite of its 
scheme; much less did Jesus, who gave 
dignity and outline to duty; who was the 
herald of personal immortality ; who 
taught prayer to a personal One; who 
glorified by his speech and life the whole 
scheme of philosophy, in every sense the 
opposite of Pantheism. In fact, what- 
ever the mistakes of orthodoxy, this 
theory is absurd. 

Nevertheless, we must follow Mr. Pic- 
ton to the end. It is simply the contin- 
ual retreat of a fine soul into the ques- 
tion of which Mr. Knight speaks : " If 
God is everywhere, how could there be 
any room for us?" Mr. Picton says: 
" The notion of a merely mechanical per- 
vasion, or of the luminiferous ether in 
atmospheric air, in water, or in glass, 



CREED OF THE FUTURE. 349 

could not possibly diminish the mere ex- 
ternality of Divine relations to the world. 
Unless such point of being, so to speak, 
is at its heart divine, the only relations 
possible between it and the Creator, are 
essentially external and mechanical." 1 
This does not make against Theism nor 
for Pantheism, as pure Theism does not 
hold that spirit occupies space. But it 
does reveal this — that there is, in fact, no 
difference, logically, between the " higher 
Pantheism" and the "lower Pantheism." 
We are, by Mr. Picton's statement, made 
able to entertain, in the same thought, 
Erigena and Spinoza, with him who looks 
at matter and spirit as one. 

In the Theistic sense, "I am not my 
own ; I am needed, or I should not be 
here; for each thing serves all else; my 
life-work is to play my part according 
as the divine forces without and within 
one teach; not for myself, but for the 
widest, good that I can conceive," 2 are 
words pre-eminently Christian. In the 

1 Page 354. 
2Pao-e 368. 



350 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

Pantheistic sense, they reduce to the po- 
etry of Emerson : 

" All are needed by each one; 
Nothing is fair or good alone. 



"O'er me soared the eternal sky, 
Full of light and deity ; 

"Beauty through my senses stole; 
I yielded myself to the perfect whole, 1 ' 1 

which has a more logical strain in the 
elder song : 

" There is no difference in the texture fine 

That's woven through organic rock and grass, 

And that which thrills man's heart in every line, 
As o'er its web God's weaving fingers pass. 

"The timid flower that decks the fragrant field, 
The dawning star that hints the solemn dome 

From one propulsive force to being reeled, 
Botn keep one law and have a single home. 

"The river and the leaf, the sun and shade, 

The bird and stone, the shepherds and their flocks, 

Are all of one primeval substance made — 
A single key their common secret locks. 

" Each atom holds the boundless God concrete, 
Beside whose abstract Being nothing is; 

lu Each and All." 



CREED OF THE FUTURE. 351 

Each mind, each point of dust, is God complete; 
Who knows but this, the magic key is his." 1 

Shall we say that this was what Tenny- 
son meant when he has also sung: 

" That each who seems a separate whole 
Shouldmovehisrounds, and fusing all 
The skirts of self again, should fall 
Re-merging in the general soul, 

" Is faith as vague as all unsweet. 
Eternal form shall still divide 
The eternal soul from all beside, 
And I shall know him xohen we meet. 11 

This poem, says David Masson, " is a 
manual for many of the latest hints and 
questions in British Metaphysics. He 
that would exclude " In -Memori-am" and 
"Maud" from a conspectus of the philo- 
sophical literature of our time, has yet to 
learn what philosophy is." 2 Thus, to use 
words which Mr. Picton has applied to 
rt Pantheistic devotion," we may say " that 
that the modern perception of the unity, 
wonder, and transcendental vastness or 

1 " All is each, and each is all." Alger's Poetry of 
the Orient. 

2 Recent British Philosophy, page 19. 



352 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

the material world," 1 give to " Theistic 
devotion" such a thrilling meaning and 
overawing dignity as it never had before. 

Let Mr. Picton define. ." What we mean, 
then, generally, by Christian Pantheism, 
is that theory of the word which, while 
acknowledging that human thought and 
language are not articulately expressive 
of anything more than phenomenal 
knowledge, yet sees in phenomena the 
fragmentary and partial manifestation of 
an unutterable unity beyond them." 2 Why 
" fragmentary and partial " if this " un- 
utterable unity " is free ? 

All objection to the personal God on 
the score of Anthropomorphism is si- 
lenced by an admission of the impossibil- 
ity he finds in speaking about his own 
u unutterable unity." We say, therefore, 
to use his words, u if our noblest words 
and thoughts are inadequate, it does not 
follow that others should be used ; for 
this, by hypothesis, would make the in- 
congruity greater." 3 If, as he avers, 

1 Page 393. 

2 Ibid. 

3 Ibid. 



CREED OF THE FUTURE. 353 

" our thoughts of personal life, of will, 
and counsel, and love, and mercy, and 
justice are the warmest and brighest 
that we know," and if, as he also asserts, 
"the laws of thought, themselves a part 
of the universal order, compel us to think 
of one Absolute Being as the ultimate 
reality of the phenomenal world," l yet 
" forbid our regarding this Being as iden- 
tical with, or fully manifested by, any 
mere class of impressions," 2 can we take 
any special class ? Why not unite our 
impressions of reality with our impres- 
sions of the personal One? Why not al- 
low the impressions of this 'personal God, 
who is God over all and in all, to be met 
with " the warmest and brighest thoughts 
that we know " — over whose unity, as 
within it, shall stand One to whom of old 
the name of Jehovah was given ? 

Pantheism makes " an approximation " 
which is opposed to reason. Theism 
makes an " approximation " in which rea- 
son finds its most enraptured delight. 
True, " what we feel, it may be we can 

1 Pages 393, 394. 

2 Ibid. 



354 METAMORPHOSES OF A CJ?EED. 

not speak." Wordsworth could express 
it neither in words nor in tears. This 
Christian Theist found that the mystery 
was of 

" Thoughts which do often lie too deep for tears." 

He quotes Tennyson's beautiful verses 
of melody, and says : " Only the Panthe- 
ism, which looks through the creature, 
and worships the eternal goodness as the 
unimagined fullness from which the fair- 
ness of the creature Hows, can give ade- 
quate meaning to such emotions of the 
heart." 1 What is the goodness of an 
unfree u . unutterable unity ?" Is " good- 
ness " God ? Tennyson did give " ade- 
quate meaning to such emotions of the 
heart," but only, as we have shown, by 
taking Arthur Henry Hallam out of the 
dreamy sleep of Brahma and leaving him 
with " Him whose eye never sleeps " — the 
Eternal God. 

God was in him as Tennyson saw 
him — 

: " Who, but hung to hear _- 
The rapt oration flowing free 

1 Page 402. 



CJiflED OF THE FUTURE. 355 

" From point to point, with power and grace, 
And music in the bounds of law. 
To those conclusions when we saw 
The God within him light his face, 

" And seem to lift the form, and glow 
In azure orbits heavenly-wise; 
And over those etherial eyes 
The bar of Michael Angclo." 

He leaves him in God, calling him 

" That friend of mine who lives in God; 

" That God, which ever lives and loves — 
One God, one law, one element. 
And one far-off divine event, 
To which the whole creation moves." 

His personal life goes on forever. For 

his " ransomed reason " there are new 

ranges of activity. He may love, and, 
being 

" A Lord of large experience, train 
To riper growth the mind and will." 

He is not " lost in God " personally. 
To him his friend on earth looks, say- 
ing, " I shall not sec thee," and yet be- 
lieving that 

" He, the Spirit himself, may come 
"Where all the nerve of sense is numb; 
Spirit to Spirit, Ghost to Ghost." 

So far is Tennyson, indeed, from ac- 



356 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

cepting Pantheism, that, in spite of his 
trust that 

" Somehow good 
Shall be the final goal of ill," 

he prays to one who hears such words 
as these : 

" Be near me when my light is low, 

When the blood creeps, and the nerves prick 
And tingle ; and the heart is sick 
And all the wheels of being slow." 

Thus does the present laureate step into 
the shoes of his illustrious predecessor. 
Wordsworth was the Christian Theist — 
with such eccentricities as his environ- 
ment suggested. His time did not know 
its deepest feelings. He was its poet 
nevertheless. Tennyson is the Christian 
Theist— with such eccentricities as his en- 
vironment suggests. His time is more 
conscious of its profoundest life. He is 
the poet thereof. 

All of the qualities to which Mr. Pic- 
ton calls attention, as worthy our love in 
Pantheism, are involved in Christian 
Theism, and are made glorious by the 
presence of the personal God. He at 
last speaks of it plainly as " regarding all 



CREED OF THE FUTURE. 357 

things as the phenomenal manifestation 
of God," 1 " that in man such manifestations 
produce the phenomena of self-conscious- 
ness ;" 2 "that the true mode of regarding 
special objects is to consider them as dif- 
ferent manifestations of the univeisal 
Substance." 3 Now, to seek to make a dis- 
tinction as he does, between "the thoughts 
that arise in us, we know not how, amid 
the forces that play upon us from an in- 
finite realm," is to seek to do the impossi- 
ble. He says, notwithstanding, "we are 
not God ; and our thoughts can not be 
thoughts of God, for our minds are full 
of seeming separateness and finiteness." 
If we are " manifestations of the univer- 
sal substauce," if " such manifestations 
will produce the phenomena of self-con- 
sciousness,'- so far as thoughts are at all, 
they are manifestations of God. Whether, 
therefore, God is free or an free, since He 
is more than we are, we are not responsi- 
ble for our lives within more than for our 
Jives without. This may be the " higher 

1 Page 418. 

2 Ibid. 

3 Pa^e 429. 



358 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

Pantheism;" it is also the "lower Pan- 
theism." 

When Mr. Picton leaves this to make 
Jesus a manifestation of God, as all men 
are, or some special form of the " univer- 
sal substance," as he does, 1 with elaborate 
art, we have only to say that this has al- 
ready been proved to be Pantheism, and 
the Pantheist, therefore, is just calling 
Pantheism good. The scene to which 
Mr. Picton seeks to draw attention 2 — 
Christ losing his personality — is the story 
of Brahma's cup repeated with western 
terminology. 

But to all this it maybe said, as ho has 
suggested, that Pantheism does not seek 
to explain the problem of evil any more 
than Theism ; that it has no fear of the 
idea of sin, and does not seek to ascertain 
its force. He agrees that " there is a very 
prevalent idea that Pantheism, so far from 
giving any satisfactory account of evil, 
must necessarily explain it away ; that it 
must set at naught the convictions of 
conscience, and treat the whole moral na- 

4 Pp 422, 423. 
*Pp. 409 482. 



CREED OF THE FUTURE. 359 

tureof man as an organized lie." "Yet," 
he proceeds to say, "it is difficult to see 
why this should be the case with Panthe- 
ism more than with any other theory 
which makes the being and attributes of 
a beneficent God to he the only eternal 
facts. 1 " This, even admitting that The- 
ism is not satisfactory, will not help Pan- 
theism as the creed of the future. It is 
only the assertion that Pantheism is un- 
satisfied with itself. But he goes further, 
and says : " Pantheism does not. labor under 
greater difficulties than any other theory, 
while at the same time it furnishes stronger 
ground for the faith that, on the scale of 
infinity, all is well." After pointing out 
the fallacies of Theist and Pantheist, he 
says again to his critics : " The difficulties 
they see in our position exist equally in 
their own." We have said that the ad- 
mission of this would not help his cause ; 
hut his idea is not true, and if Pantheism 
admits this, Theism will claim the privilege 
of becoming the creed of the future. If 
Mr. Picton understands his own Panthe- 

1 Pp. 487, 443. 



360 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

ism, it, as lias been shown, relieves man 
of all personal responsibility and of duty. 
There can be no sin where there is no 
freedom. And in his system there is no 
freedom. It will not do. therefore, to 
say that Pantheism has no more difficul- 
ties than Theism, when it is at war with 
human nature. It will not do to say that 
Pantheism is not less apt to become the 
creed of the future than Theism, while 
Pantheism outrages the conscience, and 
Theism sanctities it. "Belief in an Om- 
nipotence enthroned above the world " is 
Deism ; but its errors do not palliate the 
offense of Pantheism. What can be more 
absurd than the claim, that, if anything, 
a change " gives greater fearlessness in 
condemning evil in man," when it leaves 
man incapable of doing or avoiding evil? 
What absurdity is it, to describe him, 
who believed Christ, when he said that 
the Holy Spirit would come "to reprove 
the wo^rld of sin," as regarding sin, "a 
dark negative — an emptiness of GodV" 
Is the creed of the future to touch civili- 
zation with the theory, quoted approv- 



CREED OF THE FUTURE. 361 

ingly, that, " so far as the Devil exists at 
all, is he good ?" 

Much the same treatment is given to 
immortality. 1 He says : " What has heen 
said of sin and evil may he repeated, 
though more briefly, of immortality. 
Pantheism does not re-open the question, 
but leaves it just where it was, to be an- 
swered by the human sense of incongru- 
ity between death and the consciousness 
of God." Are we, then, to be left here? 
Is our only " life to come " the " conscious- 
ness of God ?" Is personal immortality 
gone? Sin is absence of God. Panthe- 
ism makes Him in all things by its own 
confession. Therefore, sin is not. Has 
human nature also dreamed vainly of 
personal existence beyond? Yes; for, 
says our essayist, " it seems as though 
this finite consciousness were but a bub- 
ble filled with nothingness, which finds its 
true substance once again in its return to 
its infinite source." Let us then cease to 



Pp. 482-484. 



362 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

" This cheerful tribute will I give 
Long as a deathless soul shall live. 
A work so sweet, a theme so high, 
Demands and crowns eternity." 

Let us rather learn the song of the fu- 
ture — 

" I lift the cup of Brahma high ! — 
The cup and liquor both are his ; 
That flowing draught is perfect rest, 
For Brahma's self the liquor is. 

" Let endless kalpas still revolve, 

Who quaffs, no grief shall e'er befall; 
For he shall dream the dream of God, 
And never know he dreams at all. 

" My transmigrating days are o'er ; 

God's hand presents the sacred cup ; 
I eager grasp the chalice now, 

And drink the God-head's liquor up. 

" And while the sacred wine I quaff, 

Two souls are mingled on the brim: 
I drink of Brahma in the cup, 
And he receives me into him." l 

Solemnly he says : " Our conclusion, 
therefore, is, that while our knowledge of 
the phenomena which manifests the Infin- 
ite, yearly makes more difficult, and threat- 

1 Frederic B. Marvin, in the " Journal of Speculative 
Philosophy.' 



CREED OF THE FUTURE. 363 

ens to make impossible, the notion of God 
as one Being amongst others, our grow- 
ing recognition of the oneness of the 
universe, and, we must add, of its infin- 
ity, compels us to identify Deity with that 
absolute existence which involves all in 
itself." l We have shown that victory 
over Deism is not, by any means, victory 
over Theism. We are left with the mere 
assertion of the truth of Pantheism. And 
all will agree that these words mean just 
this : that the as yet unproved assump- 
tion of science must banish our knowl- 
edge of the nature of things ; that the 
truths which make science, as distin- 
guished from hypothesis, possible, are 
made extinct ; that the authority which 
comes from the powers of the mind is a 
thing of the past. Is not this mental 
suicide ? Was not Daniel Webster right ? 
Is not suicide confession ? 

1 Pa«?e 485. 



364 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 



CHAPTER IV. 



CONCLUSION. 



Our task is well nigli done. In it we 
have not aimed at controversy. We have 
attempted to show that the history of the 
Unitarian Church has not been written, 
nor has Mr. Frothingham done his whole 
duty with regard to Transcendentalism in 
New England. We have not attempted 
to satisfy this great want, if, indeed, any 
system of the universe so faulty and con- 
tradictory to human nature is worthy of 
a chronicle. Good taste, so far as it can 
be divorced from a passion for truth, has 
dictated the omission of any reference to 
Pantheism in these works ; but truth de- 
mands not only a reference to Pantheism, 
but an exposition of the intimate relation 
subsisting between one form of Idealism 
and others. This is no hint that the 
reader is yet to be asked to read any ac- 
count we may give of the history of Pan- 
theism. The desolation which this the- 



CONCLUSION. 365 

ory of being makes is seen in the outrage 
which its principles commit upon every 
noble sentiment and fine feeling in human 
nature. This chronicle has been made 
by other hands, who have found delight 
in unveiliug such horrors as can spring 
from a creed in open defiance to civiliza- 
tion, the future of man, and the glory of 
God. We have shown that these forms 
of Idealism, Unitarianism and Transcen- 
dentalism, can never be separated from 
Pantheism, such as is opposed to reason, 
scripture, the nature of things, and any 
desirable future. If such an awful alter- 
native is, by a fit of desperation, called 
preferable to a religion, which, whether 
found in the creeds or not, is at one with 
reason, scripture, the nature of things, 
and any desirable future — that is a propo- 
sition which is the best statement of its 
own absurdity, and with which it would 
be foolish to deal. 

All that orthodoxy means, in the pre- 
sent effort, is right doctrine. That any 
positive statement which has been made 
with regard to the superiority of the or- 
thodox scheme, involves the acceptance 



366 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

of orthodoxy, so-called, as an entirety, is 
an unwarranted notion, to which it 
is desirable -to assert our opposition. 
"We frankly confess that the Trinitarian- 
ism so often heralded as the saving tenet 
of right doctrine, is simply Tri-theism, 
and logically, of course, Polytheism. 
Thus it comes, that, with some justice, 
have Unitarians and others called atten- 
tion to many of the assertions of their 
antagonists as the expressions of this 
spirit. Certainly neither Pantheism nor 
Polytheism is right doctrine. Orthodoxy 
is clear of the taunts of both. 

This essay does not claim to have any 
lease upon right doctrine other than every 
such attempt has, nor does it desire to be 
thought of as possessed of the egotism of 
either school with which it can not agree, 
and to the logical errors of one of which 
it has called attention. While it is a 
showing of the facts against Unitarian- 
ism as resulting in Pantheism, it is no 
showing for a Trinitarianism as resulting 
in Polytheism. It is simply an effort to- 
ward Orthodoxy. It has used that word 
as it seemed applicable to various ideas 



CONCLUSION. 3G7 

which it, as the writer thinks, must em- 
body. And if it should seem that the 
claim of orthodoxy is made too often, by 
one who, on the one hand, has written of 
the Metamorphosis of the Spirit of Uni- 
tarian Theology into Idealism, and thence 
into Pantheism, and, on the other, be- 
lieves an equally strong essay might be 
written of the Metamorphosis of the 
Spirit of popular Trinitarian theology 
into Realism, and thence into Polytheism, 
the writer can only say, that nobody can 
desire the acceptance of one absurdity to 
escape another, nor can it be thought 
strange if, in the days of rampant dog- 
matism, one should prefer to say " I do 
not know" even though the usages say 
"you must know." 

Cui bono ? And to what result, then, 
are we brought ? To this : 

I. Unitarianism has no right to ask 
support, or to assume a dogmatic air and 
claim the allegiance of humanity on the 
ground of its being true. 

II. Unitarianism. has no right to assert 
its control of the future, and no prospect 
of becoming a permanent scheme of doc- 



368 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

trine from which, practice shall spring, on 
the ground of its being friendly to free- 
dom. When its history is written, men 
shall find on pages what is already in 
fact — that New England Unitarianism fled 
the intellectual neighborhood of old Cal- 
vinism in fear of F atalism and of a Tyrant. 
Its first work was to justify to itself its 
name by denying Godhead to Jesus 
Christ. We have seen its failure to at- 
tract Orthodoxy into its communion, and 
the most rigid Calvinism of to-day, 
freshly inspired by recent gains and 
losses, flings out its banner on the waste 
places of Unitarianism. Not more cer- 
tain is it that in fact of numbers it has 
failed, than in realizing its theological 
aim. It broke from fatalistic Theism, 
and cried for liberty. Noble were some 
of its protests. The history of eloquence 
will not be complete without many of 
these splendid pleas. Much of Theodore 
Parker, as an instance, ought to be for- 
gotten, but those manly words of indig- 
nant eloquence which announced the an- 
tagonism of human nature to the " Fivo 



CONCLUSION. 369 

Points," can not pass from tlie history of 
the human soul. 

But Unitarianism is not a negative. It 
has crystalized its yearnings into a system 
of theology, and as soon as it begins to 
postulate dogma, its utterances for liberty 
grow vapid and insignificant. It has es- 
caped the arms of Calvin by being locked 
in the embrace of Spinoza. It ridiculed 
Jonathan Edwards, but welcomed Strauss. 
It has indeed rushed from Scylla upon 
Charybdis. Both are of the same geo- 
logic formation, as the fatalism of the old 
Calvinism and the fatalism of Pantheism 
are one. Liberty is the last word that can 
fall from the lips of those who write for 
" Freedom and Fellowship in Religion." 
" Freedom from Creeds," so lustily ad- 
vertised, is bought at a fearful cost — that 
of intellectual and moral liberty. The 
Pantheism of Emerson and Frederic II. 
Hedge are professions of freedom from 
the Calvinism of Hodge and Henry B. 
Smith, as the slavery of the Carolinas 
was not that of the Queen's Castle, while 
a proclamation of freedom from either 
place would be written in sight of chains. 



370 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

Unitarianism lias fled, and successfully, 
but by buying theological license at the 
expense of philosophical liberty. 

The very straws on the current point 
in this way, as they ever have. The cry 
for " freedom " has been so prolonged a 
cry that it has been seen to signify what 
it really meant all the years — license. The 
clarion which rung with the enthusiasm 
of Charming and Priestly, has been cry- 
ing for an abnegation of responsibility 
and duty. The fulminating of such words 
as " tolerance," " liberty," and " catho- 
licity," has gone on in the midst of the 
things of which they are the names, un- 
til the truth was apparent, that what was 
meant was to proclaim the unimportance 
of evil ; that, after all, it is only a mode 
of life and being ; that obeying is right 
enough, if one does not have to go out of 
his way to do it ; that one needs not to 
" rise above nature," as things are doing 
well and executing themselves, while the 
publishing of Omnipotence forever goes 
on. From the days of Faustus Socinius 
unto those of " The Ways of the Spirit," 
Unitarianism has been proclaiming her 



CONCLUSION. 371 

tendencies and heralding her march to- 
ward Pantheism ; thus not allowing those 
persons who have looked into her face 
thus long to be surprised when her lips 
quiver with its poetry, and her tongue 
speaks eloquent words of eulogy over the 
apostles. 

III. Unitarianism has no right to ask 
for the leadership of the race on the 
ground of its suitableness to present ideas 
of progress, or on the ground of its abil- 
ity to furnish inspirations and thoughts 
for the future such as shall tend to the 
highest civilization. Unitarianism is 
Pantheism in theology, the literature of 
which is the husk of its life. Its seeds 
falling into human life and thought 
should stir a profounder fear than the en- 
croachments of anthropomorphism, and 
we can not think that any theology which 
by any means leads to such a philosophy, 
is worthy the acceptance of any branch 
of the vine, Christ, or that those persons 
who teach it can be regarded as the apos- 
tles of a fair civilization, a noble philan- 
throphy, or the high possibility of human 
nature, 



372 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

The souls which glorify it have lived 
in most eloquent opposition to its princi- 
ples. They have even plead for what 
would be impossible under its regime. 
They have; however, failed to save it 
from the just criticism of men. 

IV. Unitarianism has no right to seek 
a home in the souls of men, on the ground 
of affording any play for his divinest fac- 
ulties, or, indeed, anything but an oppor- 
tunity for them to see their own dishon- 
esty, infidelity, and incompetency. 

The historian of Pantheism will have 
hard pages to write, as the centuries 
gather about him, and the carnage of the 
human soul falls into the words of his 
story. 

Pantheism would leave no temple 
standing, since its God is not a hearer of 
prayer, nor does he answer any of the re- 
ligious feelings of the race. The deep, 
abiding inspirations which gives to society 
its lift heavenward, and the grander ideas 
of life which restrain the desolating tides 
of wrong have no relation to the eternal 
Pan. "Possibility" and " faith," with 
more such words, have no meaning, as 



CONCLUSION. 373 

through the ether the currents of Being 
interflow. 

To look toward Pantheism and pro- 
nounce the words of morality, much more 
those of religion, is to talk of the mix- 
ture of night and day. Penitentiary 
walls are one form of God, while in the 
brain of the murderer last admitted, God 
had another moment of self conscious- 
ness. 

Crime is God's tragedy. The contriv- 
ing of the thief is His soliloquy, as is 
also Paradise Lost. And it is practical 
philanthrophy, to advance this cause ! 

To reinstate the religion of the Hindu 
in all our life and activity ; to make men 
despise life, and by such result to intro- 
duce suicide and murder ; to clip the wings 
of ambition, to dethrone noble aspiration, 
and to destroy the ideal of moral excel- 
lence — this is progress ! Only the other 
day, in another land, was a speech so 
applicable that it has found its place in 
literature, 1 and the effect of the effort was 
to prove the Pantheism of Hartmann, 

1 New Englander, 1878. The Philosophy of the 
Unconscious in Court. 



374 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED 

which is logically true enough to be pes- 
simistic, the soil upon which grew a foul 
murder. Can we think of a noted crimi- 
nal being edified with some classic of 
Pantheism before his execution ? The one 
fact excludes the other. If this philoso- 
phy were accepted, no such use could be 
made of its literature. "Acts of vice . . . 
are movements of universal nature, and in 
conformity with the divine intelligence." 
" One side of God is what men call evil." 

The Lopes of humanity are as foolish 
as their fear of sin. The immortality of 
men is a new form of existence, as a 
chunk of coal has life and being in the 
smoke and ashes. The idea of a Father- 
spirit is true, but only in poetry. To 
hope that God will care for one is most 
foolish. 

But no less inconsistent is it for any 
band of thinkers to offer Pantheism on 
the ground of respect for man and the 
faculties of the soul. The whole nature 
of Pantheism is opposed to the nature of 
man, and it is strange that in one sen- 
tence a reference is made to great Human 
Nature and its authority, and Pantheism 



CONCLUSION. 375 

is advertised as a cure-all in the next. 
Nothing so outrages the conscious soul 
as Pantheism. Freedom so lustily cried 
for is protested against as the Infinite 
throbs through the finite. All distinction 
between right and wrong which the soul 
so bravely proclaims is broken over as 
the Deity turns Himself about. It de- 
mands the constitutionally religious be- 
ing to be irreligious, as it asks the seeker 
to become the sought. Duty is a dream, 
and sorrow for sin is the renewal of some 
other life-fragment. Life is unreal. Death 
is the plunge of unreality into unreality. 

" The earth disolves, the stars grow dark, the sun ex- 
pires, 

An ashy hue comes o'er the sky; all spirits fade; 

Eetreat chaotic glooms and cosmogonic fires ; 

Absorbing boundlessness claims all that has been 
made. 

The elements re-seek their transcendental deep — 

The Kalpa ends. Great Brahma is about to sleep." 

Great human nature which has been 
appealed to and called upon to witness, 
and lauded, that this theology might be 
established, has remained, and, quietly 
gazing into the face of liberalism, begins 
to sec that liberalism has been conquered 



376 METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED. 

bj r these eyes of meditative but earnest 
lustre. As now it seems that human na- 
ture grows sick of dogma to the exclu- 
sion of inspiration, and seems also about 
beginning anew to live, agreeing to 
"know only in part," " until that which is 
perfect is come," the confessions of faith 
are more and more tried by life, and con- 
duct sits upon the question of their " right 
doctrine." 

The Trinity is a truth not to be held 
upon one's tongue. We can write about 
it — no one can write it. In life, it pre- 
sents no contradiction, but is the grand 
fact focalizing all the rays of eternity. So 
of the Atonement; so of the doctrine of 
Providence ; so of all great and highest 
truth. Human nature lives them, but 
does not explain them. Upon Unitarian- 
ism, or any other theory which assaults 
the soul either by flattery or open oppo- 
sition, it looks un wearily and charit- 
ably until conquered thus silently, but, no 
less valiantly, it seeks its ancient compan- 
ionship and home, leaving man alone 
with God, whose angel has said: 

Behold! I Make All Things New. 



90 



